Chain Reactions
by Psychonut375
Summary: My first story. Seiner and other various pairings. Who thought sitting on a bench and getting a chocolate bar from your rival could go so wrong and that you'd suddenly have gangs chasing after you? Well I sure didn't...
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer : I don't own Kingdom Hearts or any of it's characters.. or chocolate bars...

It had gotten to the point where I wasn't even able to have any chocolate what so ever. It seemed that Seifer knew this, because every day after school he would be sitting in the Sandlot eating a freaking chocolate bar! No one except my mom, Roxas, Pence and Olette knew that I had a chocolate addiction. Two weeks ago I had eaten about 15 bars of chocolate from the store with out buying them. My mom was not to happy about that and she forbade me from eating anything with chocolate in it until I learned to control myself. Which was freaking hard to do when every day that asshole was eating chocolate right in front of me! What's even worse is that I had developed a crush on my long time rival. I didn't know when it started, but when I realized it I felt like killing myself. Come on, out of everyone in this town I had to fall for _Seifer_! God must have a messed up sense on humor. Today was no different than the others. Roxas and I split in front of the school and I walked down to the Sandlot. As expected Seifer was sitting on a bench eating a chocolate bar. Rai and Fuu were no where to be seen, which kind of surprised me. But then again, weren't they dating or something? They wouldn't want to spend all their time around the Sandlot doing nothing, especially today. I shook my head, why did I always get so off subject? Anyways, Seifer was sitting there, looking like the god I'm sure he is, eating a chocolate bar. I didn't even realize I stopped and was not only staring at the chocolate bar but at him as well. His tongue would slid over the chocolate and... that thought _**can't**_ continue! After a few minutes Seifer seemed to get annoyed with my staring.

"Do you want some lamer?" Seifer asked. I blinked a couple times, coming out of my trance.

"Um... what?" Was my genius reply. He rolled his eyes and leaned back. Gesturing to the bar he was holding in his hand he repeated his question. "Oh.. um.." What was I supposed to say to that? I wanted some,_ **a lot**_! But my mom said that I .. well she isn't here is she? Seifer just waited for my answer patiently. As my internal struggle continued on though, he lost his patience. Standing up he walked over to me and pulled out another bar of chocolate.

"Just fucking take it chickenwuss." He said hitting me in the face with it. I glared back at him but was distracted when I saw the bar in front of my face. I looked at him in confusion. He was just going to give me it? No fighting, no name calling (besides the usual)?

"Thanks..." I forced myself as I slowly took the bar out of his hand. "Wait, is this poisoned or something? " I asked. A hurt look crossed his face momentarily before disappearing like it never existed.

"No dumb ass, it isn't poisoned." He answered back. I gave him a non believing look. "Fine, if your not going to fucking believe me then give it back!" He yelled at me and tried to snatch it back from me. I jerked it away from him quickly before he could grab it away.

"I believe you, I believe you." I said taking a few steps away and guarding the bar behind my back. He rolled his eyes at me and we just stood there for a moment. He was looking at me, probably expecting me to run off. I was just staring back at him.

"Want something else, or just like what you see?" He asked after a moment. For some reason that pissed me off.

"God you are such a bastard!" I yelled at him. He looked taken aback for a second before he smirked that god damn sexy smirk at me. At that moment I wanted both to jump him and to punch him in his godly face.

"I'll take that as a yes for both of them." He said winking at me. Now that surprised the anger right out of me. He didn't seem to object to me both wanting _something_ from him and liking what I saw. Does that mean that he.. my brain started to think and I got a feeling of hope in my chest before I squashed both. He's just making fun of me again!

"Ew Seifer! That's gross." I said to him. He just smirked in response and walked leisurely back to the bench he was previously occupying. When he sat down he looked back at me with his icy blue eyes. Those eyes sent shivers down my spine every time he looked me straight in the eye.

"We all know you like guys Hayner, it's not something to be ashamed about." Seifer said suddenly. I felt heat rising to my cheeks. I was not blushing though, it was more a mad flush then anything. I stomped over to Seifer and punched him straight in the jaw. "What the hell chickenwuss?" The blond haired god growled at me. That sent shivers down my spine as well. He glared at me and suddenly I felt like I was going to burst into flames, get run over by a train, get thrown off a cliff, explode into a million and two pieces, and get stabbed in the eye twelve times. I shut my eyes, waiting for him to hit me back but nothing happened. I slowly opened my right eye and peered down at him face. He looked a little worried. I opened both of my eyes and gave him a confused look. He just stared back at me with a straight face.

"Wow you must really be lonely with out Fuu or Rai around now. You won't even hit me because I'm the only company you've got." I said as I sat down besides him on the bench. He pushed me roughly in the arm, making me almost fall off the bench. He didn't say anything though. I stared at him expectantly. No asshole remarks or blows at my ego with bad comments. Nothing. He just sighed and took off his ore beanie before running his hand through his amazingly blond silky locks. ( Okay I didn't know if they're actually silky, but they looked like they were silky.) We just sat there in silence for a while. Oddly enough it was comfortable. We both just seemed to enjoy the moment of silence and comfort that was so rare when we were in each others presence. After about 20 minutes he looked at me from the corner of his eye.

"Are you going to eat the chocolate I gave you?" Seifer asked. I mentally face palmed. I had totally forgotten about the chocolate bar that was in my back pocket! Wait. I had forgotten about the chocolate bar in my back pocket! Never before had I forgotten about chocolate!

"Um, yeah. Unless you want it back?" I worded it into a question. Why was he asking if he didn't want it? He shook his head slightly.

"No, I don't want it back. I was just wondering." He answered and sighed again. Something really must have been bothering him. He wasn't making fun of me and wasn't calling me lamer like he usually did. Actually he usually called me chickenwuss. The rest of my friends were usually called lamers. It made me feel a little special that I got a different nickname, even if it was chickenwuss. I was brought out of my thoughts again by Seifer's hot voice. "Have you ever wanted something so badly, yet you know that you'll probably never get it?" Seifer asked me.

"Yeah. I know what that feels like." I answered. The thought of being with Seifer came to mind. That was never going to happen. I was sure of that. "Why do you ask?"

"It's just that... never mind. It's none of your business anyways chickenwuss. " The blue eyed teen answered back. He stood quickly and started to walk off. "See you later Hayner." He yelled from over his shoulder, giving me a back handed wave. I sat on the bench for a few seconds watching him walk away before I noticed that he used me name.

"Yeah, see you later Seifer." I said weakly and smiled to myself. Maybe he wasn't suck a jackass after all.

The next day Roxas and I went our separate ways after school like usual, except today Roxas' boyfriend Axel came to pick him up. Olette and Pence went to go study at the library and it was Friday. Of course once again I had nothing to do on a Friday. I really needed to get a life. I waved at Roxas and started walking towards the Sandlot. If your wondering, I went through the Sandlot on my way home because it was the fastest way to get there, not because most of the time the gorgeous blond haired god was there. That was just a plus. I laughed a little to myself. I really was beginning to sound like a chick. I would have to stop that. As I neared the Sandlot I heard Seifer laugh. It was quiet an enjoyable sound. As I turned the corner I saw what he was laughing at. Rai and Fuu were there telling stupid jokes. Well Rai was telling the jokes and Fuu was just yelling out random words, that somehow pertained to putting more humor into the comedy act. When they noticed me Fuu spoke up.

"HE'S HERE." She basically yelled in her monotone voice. Rai nodded and stared at me. Seifer turned slowly and threw me a smirk, glaring at me slightly.

"Hey chickenwuss, why the long face? Your _boyfriend_ blow you off for that red haired freak again?" Seifer mocked.

"He's not my boyfriend!" I yelled at him.

"DENIAL." Fuu _helpfully_ added in. I glared at her. Rai laughed a bit.

"Oh come on chickenwuss, we're just messin'." Seifer said as he walked to me. Once he got close enough he placed his left arm over my shoulders. I threw him a glare and tried to shrug his arm off of my shoulders but he wrapped it around my neck. "Don't be like that." He said tightening his hold on my neck. Not enough to close my air supply though. I broke out of the headlock with ease since he wasn't expecting me to try and break out of it. He just still smirked at me. I glared back.

"What do you want ass-hat?" I growled at him. He put on a fake hurt expression for a second and put his right hand to his heart. I just kept on glaring at him. Really, what was his problem. Yesterday he was actually acting nice! Then today he's back to being a big stupid hot god-like jerk!

"Ouch chickenwuss, that hurts. Why are you so mean to me? I thought we were friends." He said words dripping with sarcasm and... something else. I just couldn't pin point what the other was.

"Stop being a jerk Almasy!" I yelled at him. He dropped the fake hurt expression, instead replacing it with a little smirk.

"Oh come on Lamer, I was just pulling your strings." Seifer stated. "Actually I as wondering if..." he began to say then stopped. He looked over at Fuu. She nodded in encouragement. What was so scary that the great Seifer Almasy needed encouragement? "Um... Hayner, I was wondering if maybe... you wanted to..." Seifer said, stopping once more.

"Wondering if I wanted to what?" I asked after he didn't say anything for a minute. He fidgeted, turning towards his friends.

"Do we have to do this?" Seifer asked, or more specifically whined. Fuu glared at him and nodded. Seifer looked to Rai who just held up his hands. I guess he didn't want to take a side. Seifer turned back to me and sighed. "Okay lamer, this is what's going to happen. From now on, everyday after school you are going to hang out with us. Got it." The last part was not a question. I was confused by this. Why would he order me to hang out with him _every day_ after school?

"What if I don't.." I started to say but Seifer cut me off.

"It doesn't matter. That's what's going to happen whether you like it or not." he said. I gave Seifer a look that said ,'Why?' and he gave me one back that said ' I'll explain later.' This whole thing was confusing me, but I guess it couldn't be helped. If I refused he would have forced me into it anyways and I would get hurt, so I just crossed my arms and muttered ' Fine.'

Half an hour later I was actually feeling pretty comfortable hanging out with Rai and Fuu. Yes, even Seifer. They kept the picking on me to a minimum, which meant that Seifer only made fun of me one time already. Rai and Fuu were actually really cool people and they seemed really nice.

"Sorry Seifer, Fuu and I have to go meet up with her parents for dinner y'know." Rai said out of the blue. Fuu looked at her watch and agreed. Seifer gave him a horrified look.

"But, but, but.." Rai just smiled at him apologetically and left quickly, Fuu following after him. He turned to me, looking really awkward. I just stared back at him silently. "Um... what do you want to do?" He asked.

"Why am I being forced to hang out with you guys?" I asked, not answering his question. He gave me a serious look.

"Well.. people, specifically one of the gangs in town, heard about our little... whatever it was yesterday that happened between us. They think that your now my "special someone" and when your mom found out she confronted me about it. When I told her that you were in fact, not my boyfriend, or really even my friend, she asked me to watch over you because it was my fault that your now in danger or something like that. I promised to protect you, so, here we are now." Seifer explained quickly. I felt my jaw drop a little.

"So, what your saying is, some gang thinks that I'm your bitch and now I'm in danger of being kidnapped or killed because you gave me a chocolate bar and we sat on a bench together?" I asked. He nodded. "That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard!" I exclaimed.

"Yeah, that's what I was thinking also." Seifer agreed. He stared walking off to the west.

"Where are you going?" I asked him. He just motioned for me to follow him. I glared at his back for a few seconds before running to catch up to him. It was silent the whole time we walked through town. After we got closer, I figured out that we were heading to my house. "Why are you walking me home?" I asked when we were a block away.

"Because your in danger idiot, and I'm your protection." He answered back.

"What if they come to my house?"

"I'm going to stay with you until your mom gets home." He informed me. He's going to be in my house? Was the first thing that my internal voice said. We walked up to my front door and Seifer took out a key and stuck it into the lock. Turning the key I heard the door unlock and he opened it.

"When did you get a key to my house?" I almost screeched. He smirked at me once more.

"Your mom gave it to me." He said back a little smugly. I just gaped at him. "Will you stop pretending to be a fish and get into the damn house." I snapped my mouth shut for the second time today and walked into the house quickly, Seifer following. He shut and locked the door before standing in front of the door looking at me. Once again there was an awkward silence between us. I racked my mind trying to come up with something to say, then finally something came to me.

"Why did you agree to protect me when my mom confronted you?" I broke the silence. He gave me a disbelieving look.

"Dumb ass, your mom's fucking scary! I'm not even sure how she found out about the whole gang thing, but when some lady fucking stomps up to you and scowls before crossing her arms and looking you straight in the eye, your bound to be intimidated, even if your mom is an inch shorter than me." I looked at him like he had been shitting rainbows and talking about his fluffy purple unicorn named Delilah. "What, you don't find your mom one bit scary?" He asked, walking past me and into the living room where he sat down on the couch. I followed him in and sat down on the reclining chair just to the left of the couch.

"No, my mom's pretty harmless, or well, I thought she was. The only weird thing about her is that she has this weird ability to know _everything _about you by just being in the same room with you for like 5 minutes." I explained. Seifer's eyes widened dramatically.

"You've got to be fucking shitting me! What the hell does your mom do for a living?" He asked.

"She's a Therapist.." I stated.

"Oh that actually explains everything.." He said truthfully. I shrugged and stood up.

"Want something to drink?" I asked, and when he nodded I proceeded into the kitchen to grab us both a soda. Walking back into the living room, I found Seifer lounging on my couch watching some show about a card game. I tossed his soda right at his head, hopping he wasn't paying attention and it would hit him in the face. Luck wasn't with me today though because he caught it with one hand and then smirked at me before going back to the show. I slumped down into the recliner and sipped my soda, tearing my eyes away from Seifer and towards the TV. I wasn't really paying attention to what was going on in the show, my mind kept going back to the fact that my long time rival and secret crush was actually in my house, on my couch, drinking my soda, and watching some cartoon show on my TV. And the most surprising part of it all was that we weren't beating the living shit out of each other or arguing. _Maybe there is hope after all._ My mind said. I quickly mentally slapped myself, and told myself to kindly shut the fuck up. About an hour went by and we still didn't say anything. Just sat there, looking at the TV. I had actually started watching the show kind of. Some brunette chick kept talking about the importance of friendship while some midget ran around wearing what appeared to be his school uniform playing card games and getting into terrible danger. Then his other personality or whatever would come out, same some shit about the heart of the cards and then win the game. I didn't understand how Seifer could watch this. And having no brain-to-mouth filter most of the time I voiced my opinion.

"How the hell can you watch this shit?" I asked. He glanced at me then back to the screen.

"Were you watching the part where Yugi was talking to Yami?" He asked. I nodded, hoping he could see it out of the corner of his eye. "Well, if you pay attention enough you can totally see that Yami has a thing for Yugi, it's clear as day." Seifer stated.

"Your totally right Seifer! I've always believed that he has a thing for Yugi and that Yugi has a thing for him as well, even if he pretends to like Anzu!" A girls (woman's) voice exclaimed with excitement. I looked over my shoulder at my mom as she stood there in the doorway beaming. I couldn't see how Seifer was scared of her. Seifer swiftly sat up and I saw a little tint of color on his cheeks. My mom giggled and came and ruffled my hair. "Sorry I'm late boys, I had a last minute client that really needed to see me. What do you guys want for dinner?" She asked.

"Oh, I was just leaving. Your back so I guess I'm not needed here tonight." Seifer said standing and straightening his white trench coat. My mom laughed and shook her head.

"Nonsense, it's 10 at night, your staying here for the night. So what do you want?" My mom asked again. Seifer looked shocked.

"How about Pizza." I suggested. We both looked at Seifer who was still standing in the middle of the room.

"Ugh.. sure." He said. My mom winked and gave us a thumbs up before skipping towards the kitchen. A moment later she stuck her head back around the corner and looked Seifer straight in the eyes, her cheerful smile turning to that of a controlling mother.

"Sit Seifer, relax, I'm not going to tie you to Hayner's bed and make you watch educational videos about complicated math problems." My mom said in a matter-of-fact tone. Her smile turning back into a cheerful one and she continued skipping towards the kitchen. Seifer sat back down on the couch awkwardly.

"And you say that your mother isn't weird.." He mumbled under his breath.

~~Authors Note~~

At the time I wrote this I had just devoured about 9-12 chocolate bars and was running on 3 hours of sleep. Constructive criticism is totally welcome, no huge explosions though please. ^_^


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer : I don't own Kingdom Hearts or any of it's characters.

After the Pizza got here and we all ate (My mom having to keep an eye on Seifer just to make sure he ate enough) she sent us to my room, stating that "we're big boys and we can share the same bed." I think it was more of the fact that she was lazy and didn't feel like making a place for Seifer to sleep. Also I'm pretty sure she wanted to make sure that Seifer wouldn't run home the moment she went to sleep. So that night Seifer slept in my room, on my bed. Where did I sleep? Well, I slept on the floor. Seifer tried to talk me into sleeping on the bed and him sleeping on the floor but he was the guest after all, and I really didn't think that I would be able to sleep in the same bed as Seifer. What if I did something.. weird and embarrassing? I know he would never forget about it. So here I was. Laying on the hard ground trying, and failing, to fall asleep. I stared at the ceiling for a while before rolling onto my side and looking out of my window. It was so uncomfortable on the floor. I should just go sleep on the couch. I would have too, but I was afraid that if I left the room Seifer would wake up and/or my mom would hit me in the head with a broom thinking I was Seifer trying to escape. Either way I would be put in a weird situation. My bed squeaked a little, informing me that Seifer had once again rolled over.

"Hey chickenwuss, you asleep?" Seifer whispered. I rolled to face him.

"What does it look like?" I said back sarcastically. He glared at me slightly.

"You don't have to be such an ass Hayner." Was his reply. We just glared at each other for a while, not saying anything. Finally Seifer sighed and sat up on my bed. He patted the bed beside him. "Sit lamer." He ordered me. I did as I was told, even though I had a bad feeling about it. I sat beside him staring at the side of his face. He wasn't looking at me, which made me wonder why in gods name he wanted me to sit beside him if he wasn't actually going to talk to me about something. He sighed again, finally turning to face me. I looked in his eyes, waiting for him to say what he was going to say, but it never came. We once again just sat their staring into each others eyes.

"This is starting to become a regular thing, it's freaking me out." I broke the silence, stating my thoughts without processing them. Haven't I already told you that I don't have a brain-to-mouth filter sometimes? Seifer just chuckled softly. My eyes widened in surprise, and I would never admit it out loud, but I was sort of happy that I made him chuckle. It was really cute actually. I know your thinking ' Seifer, cute?' It sounds wrong to have Seifer and cute in the same sentence, but it was! Not lying.

"That's true, it has become a regular thing. I just never know what to say around you in order to have a normal conversation." He stated. It was my turn to laugh.

"Normal? Seifer normal for us is name calling and insulting. We have trouble having abnormal conversations. Or what other people consider "normal" conversations." I corrected him. He smiled slightly.

"Your absolutely right chickenwuss." He said softly, looking me straight in the eyes once more. The warmth in his blue eyes paralyzed me. I would never think in a million years that Seifer could look at me with warmth in his eyes. I shook my head like a maniac and rubbed my eyes fiercely.

"I must be dreaming." I said to myself before slapping myself in order to wake up. _That was what you were supposed to do right? Or was it pinching yourself? _So I pinched myself harshly. "Ouch dammit, why am I not waking up?" I was confused to say the least. I should wake up now right? Seifer should not be looking at me, trying to hold back laughter. I started at him, slightly in shock.

"This isn't a dream retard." That just made me go even further into shock. _Not a dream?_ My mind couldn't seem to process that this could be real. Well, most of my brain anyways. There was that stupid part that wanted to believe that Seifer liked me back. _Idiot, he likes you! Why are you in denial. A starfish could tell that he likes you! _That part of my brain insulted me. I mentally glared at it. _Starfish don't have eyes! Okay well they do.. but they can't see things like us!_ I argued with it. _Exactly you half-wit._

"I think I'm delusional.. or just crazy." I stated. Seifer gave me a weird look. I turned my whole body to face him and grabbed his arms roughly. "Oh god Seifer, your back!" I exclaimed, pulling him into a weird hug. Then I realized what I was doing and quickly released him. I looked away from his face, not wanting to see how angry he got about me hugging him. After a few minutes and me not getting socked in the face I bravely peaked at his face. It was totally blank. Being the coward I pretended not to be, I just sat their, not moving or speaking or anything that could break him out of this nothingness and into an angry frenzy where I would be beaten severely. Wow I make it sound like he always beat the shit out of me for no reason. Which is not true. I always in some way or another, provoke him. Even if I didn't try to.

"You should go to sleep lamer. I think your sleep deprived and it's causing severe mental stress." Seifer stated pushing my slightly so that I fell back onto the bed. My head landed on the soft pillow. I yawned. He was probably right, he was a god after all. So I let him pull the blankets up over my body. I closed my eyes and snuggled into the warm blankets and soft pillow. This was way better than being on the floor. A few seconds later I felt the bed sink a little on the other side. I opened my eyes and watched as Seifer climbed into the other side. He gave me a quick glare and pulled the blankets up over his shoulders before facing away from me. I looked at his back fr a few seconds before sleep took over.

I opened my eyes and yawned. Turning towards my bedside table I looked at the red letters of my alarm clock. 9:58 am. Great. I rolled over towards to other side of my bed only to meet face to face with Seifer. He was still asleep, but still. He was like 3 inches away from me. The overwhelming urge to just kiss him was there, and I fought against it. That would not end well for me. I tried to talk myself into rolling back over, but I just couldn't make myself. He just looked so peaceful when he was asleep, I couldn't look away. I didn't realize that I had brought my hand up and brushed the stray strands of silky (Yes it was silky) blond hair until his eyes flashed open. I was like a dear in headlights because I just stayed there, wide eyed, my hand in his hair.

"What are you doing?" He questioned me, his voice scratchy from sleep. I gulped loudly. Not out of fear of Seifer, but because the urge to kiss him was there again. Okay and yes, I was a little scared of Seifer. I pulled my hand away quickly and blushed. This wasn't going well for me... at all.

"Um, nothing.." I said, hoping he was still at least half asleep and he would fall back asleep and wake up thinking it was a dream. It seemed that I was not very lucky this week though because he glared at me sharply.

"I'm not an idiot chickenwuss." He stated. I rolled my eyes. "Why were you playing with my hair?" He questioned. All I sensed from his question was curiosity, not even anger. _I must still be sleep deprived.._ I thought to myself._ Keep telling yourself that moron._ The other voice taunted. I just ignored it and went to answer his question. I mean, I went to spill some lame excuse. I opened my mouth.

"I was ..." I started to say but at that moment my door was flung open and there stood my mom. Beaming at us.

"Morning boys! Sleep well? Good, now come eat breakfast!" and with that I was out of bed and running out of the room. My mom had no clue how grateful I was to her at that moment. I was down the stairs and sitting in the dining room before either of them had even got down the stairs. My mom came in first and walked over to me. She leaned over, her face close to my year.

"I hope I wasn't interrupting anything." She whispered, a knowing tone in her voice. She then straightened up. I twirled around in my chair and sent her a pleading look. " It's safe with me honey, don't worry your pretty little head about it." She assured giving me a bright smile, that made me both trust her and wish I didn't at the same time. Once Seifer arrived in the dinning room we all began to eat. It was delicious. My mom was a great cook, and I loved that about her. After we were done Seifer left, thankfully without questioning me about that morning again. My mother on the other hand, did question me.

"Hayner, what was happening when I walked in. Were you two going to kiss?" My mom questioned me excitedly.

"Ew mom, no! Of course we weren't!" I exclaimed back, trying to make it sound like I thought it would have been gross. I don't know why I was trying, my mom clearly already knew.

"Oh don't play dumb with me boy. I know all about your crush and you know it. So tell me what was happening." She demanded and I gave in. So I told her the whole story up until the point of her walking in and how grateful I was to her. She hugged me and giggled. " I'm so glad my little boy finally has a crush on someone!" She beamed in happiness. I blushed, even though there was no one there to see my mom acting this way, it was still embarrassing. It's not like Seifer was my first crush! I had a crush on Roxas back in 4th grade, but I got over that quickly and became his best friend. So Seifer was my second crush. Why am I thinking about this? Whatever.

"Mom, stop acting like that. I know your glad that your one and only son is gay, but you should at least try and contain your overwhelming joy." I said moodily. She giggled again and messed up my hair.

"Go hang out with your boyfriend!" She ordered me jokingly. I glared at her as she cheerily skipped into the kitchen. I sighed once she was fully out of the room and decided to head up stairs and back into my room. Once in my room I fell face first on my bed and stayed with my face in the pillow until I wasn't able to breathe easily anymore then I rolled onto my back. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a black blob, and being the curious person I am I looked at it. To my great great great surprise it was Seifer's beanie. _Wait, wasn't he wearing it when he left?_ I asked myself, thinking back to him before he left. Yeah he was wearing a beanie, so... _He left it here you dummy._ The other voice said. I was about to retort, but that was the only thing that made sense so I didn't answer. "Might as well go give it to him." I said to myself. I changed into my regular camouflage pants. black shirt and green vest. I carefully put his beanie in my pocket and grabbed my cell. I walked down the stairs quickly.

"Where are you going?" My mom questioned curiously. I pulled Seifer's beanie out of my pocket and showed it to her.

"I'm going to give him his beanie. He forgot it." I answered. She smiled knowingly and nodded.

"Call him and tell him to meet you somewhere close by. The gang is still after you, so you have to be careful." My mom insisted and handed me Seifer's phone number. She just like magically pulled it out of her pocket and handed it to me, which was weird. I bet she already knew what I was going to do before I even thought of it. Whatever, she had magical powers or something. So I agreed and walked out of the front door, dialing his number on my cell. It rang a few times before he answered.

"_Hello?"_ He sounded confused. Well it's not like he had my number or anything so he didn't know it was me..

"Hi Seifer. Can we meet somewhere near my house. You left your beanie here, and I thought that you might want it back.." I explained.

"_Oh, yeah sure. You at your house right now. I could just come get it." _He said. I looked at my surroundings. I was closer to the sandlot than to my house.

"No, I'm not at my house. Meet me at the sandlot, I'm almost there." I told him.

"_Moron! What are you doing walking around without any protection! Go to your little lamer hang out and wait for me there."_ He ordered me and then hung up. I heard the dial tone and I looked at the screen.

"Well aren't you all rainbows and sunshine today. Bastard." I said as I closed my phone and heading towards the Usual Spot. I doubted anyone was there, but if they were, then that would be cool. As long as no one was making out. It was quite awkward to walk in on people making out. I disliked doing that a lot. I put my phone back into my pocket and passed an alley. For some reason I felt like someone was watching me. Just when I was about to look behind me I was thrown into the alley and thrown roughly into the brick wall.

"Well, look what I have here. It's Seifer's bitch."

~~Authors Note~~

I only write when I'm extremely tired and that can sometimes backfire on me because I become extremely random sometimes while sleepy, so sorry if things get kind of confusing...


	3. Chapter 3

"Well, look what I have here. It's Seifer's bitch." Never before had I heard this guys voice. I turned to look at him but he just smashed my face into the wall causing my vision to be filled with black dots. The guy laughed and somewhere else in the alley I heard another deep laugh.

"Nice work. The boss will be pretty happy now, don't you think?" Another voice said. I blinked away the dots in my eyes and turned my head to look at the two again. The first guy did not want that happening apparently because he grabbed a handful of my hair and bashed my head into the wall a few more times.

"If we get the reaction he want's out of Seifer, then he'll be happy. If not, then we're going to have to get more... how would you say it?" The first guy asked, bashing my face one more time before releasing my hair. I sank to the ground, severely dazed. I could feel what I could only guess was blood trickle down from my forehead and nose.

"Eccentric?" the other voice asked _helpfully_.

"Yeah, that's the word." The first voice said, kicking my in the ribs, laughing the entire time. What's even worse was the the other guy started to join in. The second guy went straight for my head. Another kick to the ribs. Another kick to the head. Some more to the ribs. All I heard was them laughing the whole time. Then there was shooting pain in my chest. I knew they had managed to break at least two ribs, and they had probably cracked a few more. Then I think I blacked out, or they knocked me out. One way or another the next time I opened my eyes I was laying on the couch in the Usual Spot. Groaning I shut my eyes and opened them once more. My head was killing me, and so were my ribs. It took me a few seconds to remember what had happened and when I did I sat straight up, my ribs screamed in pain and I became extremely dizzy.

"What the hell lamer, fucking lay back down!" Seifer yelled, coming into my line of sight. I did as he said, figuring that it was probably best. "Shit chickenwuss, what the hell happened?" Seifer automatically began interrogating me. I just shut my eyes and groaned again. I was not in the mood to talk. I just wanted to go to sleep and wake up when I was all healed.

"Hayner! Don't you dare fall asleep!" I heard Roxas' voice exclaim harshly. I opened my eyes slightly and searched the room looking for Roxas. He was standing to the right of Seifer. On the other side of the room Axel, Rai, Fuu, Olette, and Pence were standing there staring at me. Olette and Pence looked worried, Rai and Fuu looked angry, and Axel... well, he was just staring at Roxas' ass.

"Roxas your boyfriends a perverted jerk." I informed him. Roxas blinked a few times, seemingly confused.

"What?" He finally decided to ask. I just waved towards Axel and everyone looked. Axel smiled sheepishly and chuckled.

"I wasn't doing anything.." Axel stated, probably trying to get out of getting assaulted by Roxas. Everyone looked at everyone else before shrugging and going back to me.

"What happened?" Pence was the one to ask this time. I took a deep breathe and started to explain.

"Well I was walking here and some guy just jumped me and pulled me into an alley. They stunned me.. a few times. Oh did I mention there was another guy? They were saying something about the boss being happy or whatever.. then they beat me up and I don't know what happened after that." Seifer growled.

"Dammit! Fucking dammit! Did you see those mother fucking bastards faces?" Seifer growled the question at me, and to be totally honest I was a bit scared. I shook my head frantically, causing me to become dizzy again.

"Fan-fucking-tastic." Seifer muttered, walking over to Rai and Fuu. He started talking to them, and they just nodded a few times. I decided to ignore them and whatever, so I turned to Roxas. He was watching them as well, but he must have felt me looking at him because he looked right into my eyes. _Oh he can feel me looking at him but when Axel does it he's totally oblivious. _

"So, what's broken?" Roxas asked. I pointed to my ribs. "Should we like, I don't know, get you to a hospital or something?" He questioned again. I shrugged slightly and closed my eyes. Then I remembered something, or I guess it's a someone, who was not going to be to happy about this. Groaning once more I said two words that stroke fear in everyone in the room.

"My mom."

"OH SHIT YOUR MOM'S GOING TO FUCKING BRUTALLY MURDER ME!" Seifer yelled. Everyone in the room looked at Seifer this time. "She's fucking scary okay!" He defended himself. No one said anything and just continued staring at him. "Oh fuck off!"

"Anyways.." I said, drawing the attention away from Seifer. "I do believe that she is not going to be thrilled about this. I should go home though, so that she can kill Seifer." I said. "Oops, I mean.. so that she can asses my injuries and decide if the hospital is necessary." Seifer glared at me and Roxas laughed a little, trying unsuccessfully to disguise it as a cough. Axel just full out laughed, like the maniac he was. That earned him a punch in the face by Seifer. Roxas just ignored his whining boyfriend.

"Yeah, we should. Who's going to carry him, he is not walking on his own." Roxas said. Seifer walked towards me and picked me up bridal style. I squeaked a manly squeak.. or a very very girly squeak... but whatever! Roxas smirked a little like he knew what was going on. Why did all my friends have to be so insightful? The whole group filed out of the Usual Spot. It was weird that no one was arguing or fighting. I mean, yes I did just get beat up by some rival gang members, but when had me getting beat up stoped Roxas from fighting with Rai? Olette and Fuu were actually on good terms, so they wouldn't fight and Pence only fought when they started picking on him. I usual fought with Seifer, but.. that had stopped ever since he was ordered to protect me from the other gang.

"They called me your bitch." I whispered to Seifer. He just glared straight ahead. "I don't think there is any way to convince them that I'm not, and you protecting me is not helping at all." I continued whispering. The others didn't need to know this, even though Rai and Fuu probably knew everything. My friends did not need to get involved in this shit.

"Well, I have a plan.. but I don't think you'll like it." Seifer whispered back. That statement intrigued me greatly. I was going to ask what it was but Seifer continued speaking before I could. "We'll talk about this later when there's no one else around." Ending with that he continued to glare straight ahead, and at any poor innocent civilian that crossed his path. After a few minutes Seifer was carrying me up the steps to my front door. It was Saturday, and around 1 pm maybe, so I was sure my mom was home. Roxas opened the door and we all walked in. My mom came out of the kitchen and saw me. She just stared.

"Bring him to his room Seifer. I'll be there in a few. The rest of you, go get a cookie from the kitchen, I just made them. Axel don't eat them all." She ordered. She wasn't her usual cheerful self, and I felt like I was going to get a lecture about safety pretty soon. Seifer carried me up the stairs and set me on my bed. We didn't say anything and I wondered why he wasn't leaving.

"Your mom never told me to leave you here." He explained before I could ask. I looked at him in disbelief. He wasn't going away because my mom didn't say to? Was he really that afraid of my mom? "Yes, I am." He answered my question again without me asking it.

"What the hell are you, psychic?" I asked. He shook his head.

"No your thoughts and emotions are just written all over your face." He explained. _Really? _I thought to myself. _I never knew that, no one had ever said that before._ I saw Seifer roll his eyes. A second later my mom calmly walked into my room and shut the door.

"What happened, and is anything broken?" My mom asked... Seifer?

"All he said was that he was walking to the Usual Spot, some guys jumped him and beat him up. I think he said that some of his ribs were broken." Seifer answered formally. My mom nodded and looked at me.

"Yeah, that's what happened, and I do think some of my ribs are broken." I said. She walked over, poked me sharply in the ribs, which hurt like a bitch, before kissing my forehead.

"I should take you to the hospital, just to check. In half an hour we're leaving. I assume that you guys need to talk about some stuff, so talk." My mom said, walking out of my room and shutting the door behind her. Seifer and I silently stared at the door. She took that surprisingly well. Seifer turned to me.

"You were right about her knowing things." He stated. I nodded. He took a deep breath. "Let me explain the plan to you. I propose that, you know, since the leader thinks your my.. lover.. I was thinking that, maybe, we should act like we're together so that we can use it as leverage later when we're ready to wipe them out..." He explained quickly. I just stared at him.

"So your saying that we should be fake dating?" I asked. He nodded, and was that a blush I saw on his face? Nah probably not. "So what would we do?"

"Um.. I don't know. Just act like we're dating. Do what people who're dating do." Seifer told me. I was seriously considering it. We would act like we were dating, so basically we would be dating to everyone except us. I did want to be with Seifer, I mean, I did mention before that I had a huge crush on him.

"Okay. I'll do it." I said. He looked at me, face full of surprise. I guess he didn't actually think I would agree to it. What he didn't know wouldn't hurt him.

"Oh, okay great.. so from now on we're officially fake dating. Can't wait for your friends to find out.." Seifer said, which made a mental image of Roxas freaking out and having to be restrained by Axel pop into my head. I chuckled.

"Should we entertaining." I said. He smirked at me. We were silent once more, not having anything to really say to each other.

"What now?" We asked at the same time. "You go first." We once again said in unison. I laughed and gestured for Seifer to speak first.

"Your not all that bad chickenwuss. I thought you were just some stupid kid who had a thing for pain, but, after getting to know you a little better, I've realized that we have a lot in common. Your still a lamer of course."

"That's so sweet Seifer! Are you going to serenade me before proposing?" I said sarcastically. Seifer smirked and lightly punched me in the arm. "Does this mean we're friends?" I asked, sincerely curious.

"Hell no." Seifer laughed. "We're just friendly rivals, that's all." I smiled at him. Friendly rivals, what a contradiction. We spent the rest of the 15 minutes joking around and actually having fun for once. It was nice actually, just joking around with Seifer and not arguing or beating each other up.

The trip to the hospital was really fun I must say. That was sarcasm by the way. Seifer ended up staying the night again. That hopefully wasn't going to become a habit.. okay well I really wanted it to become a habit. It's sometimes hard for me to tell myself that I want something when it comes to Seifer, so shut up. It turned out I had three broken ribs, two cracked ribs, and a concussion. Fun day that turned out to be. Seifer and I decided not to tell my friends about us 'dating' just yet. We would show some PDA for a week, then announce that we decided to go out with each other. Of course it was all an act (for him). My plan was to just act like I would if I really was dating him. I suck at acting, so it was the best choice, and it had the most believable outcome.

"Hey, bitch face, you sleeping?" I whispered loud enough for him to hear me if he was awake, but quiet enough for him not to hear me and wake up if he was asleep. He opened his eyes and looked at me.

"Fuck you lamer, and yes, I m awake. What do you want?" He asked, being all bitchy again.

"That's no way to treat your fake boyfriend, gosh Seifer, no wonder your love life sucks." I stated. He just glared at me. "I'm bored and I can't fall asleep."

"What do you want me to do about it? I could always sing you a lullaby, or maybe suffocate you with a pillow until you pass out from lack of oxygen.." Seifer said. I glared at him.

"No thank you, I think I'll just try and fall asleep again. Night Seifer." I said closing my eyes and pulling the blanket over my face. I heard him chuckled and mutter a 'Goodnight chickenwuss' before I fell asleep.

_Why is it so hot? _I asked myself while waking up. _It's like someone turned the temperature up to 97 __degrees. _I opened my eyes and glanced to the right of me, just to see Seifer sleeping half an inch away from me. His arm rested around my waste. I blushed furiously. Hopefully he wouldn't wake up and blame me. I looked at his closed eyes and let out a sigh of relief that he was sleeping soundly. Then his eyes opened and once again everything turned awkward. Seifer looked at his arm around my waist, well more accurately he stared at it. Then he looked at my face then back to his arm, like he wasn't sure what to do about the situation. I just stayed silent, hoping that he would figure out that all he had to do was take his arm back and move away from me. After about 5 more minutes of Seifer looking lost I decided to help him a bit. It was nice and all but I was really hot. I moved his arm and pushed him away from me slightly. Then I smiled at him cheerfully. He just looked at the clock behind me.

"I'm going to go take a shower... yeah." I said, standing up and rushing towards the bathroom. The awkwardness in that room was overwhelming. Entering the bathroom I shut and locked the door behind me. Then started a shower. My mind was totally blank, which was weird considering that I _just_ woke up with the **hottest guy in Twilight town's **arm wrapped around my waist. But no, my mind was completely blank. I showered slowly and when I was finished I realized that I hadn't brought any cloths with me into the bathroom. I put on my PJ's and headed back to my room. Seifer was nowhere to be seen and I hurried and changed. Walking down the stairs I heard my mothers giggle. Hurrying the rest of the way down the stairs I peeked around the corner and into the living room.

"It was the cutest thing I have ever seen!" My mother exclaimed and Seifer just sat there _blushing._


	4. Chapter 4

Now if Seifer was blushing then it must be something seriously embarrassing and since my mom was saying words such as 'cute' I assumed that she had seen me and Seifer this morning. Then I saw something in her hand and I felt an instant sense of dread.

"Mom?" I questioned walking fully around the corner. She giggled again and smiled childishly at me.

"Hi honey! Sleep well?" She asked, giggling like a 4 year old the entire time. I stared at the object in her hand.

"Why do you have the camera?" I totally ignored her question. She looked down at the camera in her hand innocently before putting it behind her back and trying to look innocent.

"Oh no reason... I'm going to go to the store now, bye!" My mom said as she tried to race past me. I stepped in front of her and crossed my arms.

"Mom, give me the camera." I warned. She shook her head childishly. I tried to reach behind her for it but she made sure it was out of my reach. From then on it became a game. I chased her all around the house trying (and failing) to get the camera from her. I knew she had taken pictures. That would be the only reason she would have the camera. After about 15 minutes I was out of breath and I had to stop chasing her. She stood before me proudly, smiling that damned smile. For some reason unknown to everyone, she didn't look the least bit tired from running for 15 minutes straight, and she was laughing like a crazy woman the whole time! I lunged once more for the camera, hoping that maybe I would take her by surprise. She just sidestepped and I fell on the floor.

"Hayner, maybe you should exercise more often instead of eating all those chocolate bars and playing video games all day." She teased. I rolled off of my face, which I had landed on by the way, and onto my back. My ribs hurt like hell from running and falling on them and all.

"You know it's mean to tease someone who's injured." I stated. She just rolled her eyes.

"Hayner, honey, you deserved it from trying to get these pictures." Then she knelt down beside me and whispered in my ear. "I'll make you copies." Then she jumped up, full of energy once again, and walked away.

"You could at least help me up!" I yelled after her. From the other room I heard her ask Seifer to help me, then the front door open and shut. "She's going to go make copies... and pass them out to all her yaoi loving friends and they're going to sit for hours talking about it." I said to myself.

"That's fucking great, just fucking fantastic..." Seifer said from the entryway.

"Tell me about it." I said, waiting for him to come help me up. When he just stood their looking at me I decided that maybe he needed some instruction. "Bastard, help me up." I ordered. Seifer scowled at me but came and helped me up anyways. Then we ate breakfast. Well first we made it, then we ate it. Usually my mom cooked breakfast for me, but I guess she was to busy being mental. Seifer and I didn't talk much. It was really awkward. Every time our eyes met he looked away and I blushed. It was weird being like this with Seifer. I mean, we were now technically fake dating and we would have to act like we were real dating which meant doing all those things that people who are dating do. Which I guessed meant like holding hands and hugging and things like that.

"Seifer... about the fake dating thing.." I said nervously. He looked at me and looked slightly scared. I ignored the fear and continued talking. "I was thinking.."

"Oh lord that's not good!" Seifer said, face completely straight. I blinked at him a few times, confused and slightly insulted by his outburst. I was trying to figure out if he was joking or being serious. He just looked at me with a bored expression.

"Anyways..." I continued, not really sure on what else to do. Seifer face-palmed which probably meant that he had been joking. I smiled apologetically at him. He had at least tried to make a joke. I guess it was a good thing, even if it was insulting. "I've been thinking about it and.. what exactly would we do? I mean, I don't take you for the holding hands and hugging sort of type. Or the perverted type that always grabs your partners ass. So.. I mean, I would just kind of like to know what to expect." I explained. Seifer's face relaxed.

"Oh, you got me worried there for a second. I will act like a normal boyfriend. With the holding hands and hugging sort of thing. You know, a kiss in the morning and stuff like that. Just remember it's all an act, I don't really do that when I'm in a relationship with someone, but we need to make it seem as if we're together right? So we have to show PDA." Seifer answered back. It made sense actually.

"Of course it's an act." I laughed. "It's totally impossible for it to be anything but an act." I said, faking laughing. It hurt a little to admit it out loud, but I couldn't end up fooling myself and believing that it was anything different. I would only end up getting hurt when this was all done. Seifer gave me a worried look.

"Are you okay with it just being an act chickenwuss?" Seifer asked unexpectedly. I stared at him in disbelief. After my moment of shock passed I studied his face, looking for any sort of disgust or anger or anything. There was nothing. He seemed genuinely worried.

"Y-yeah. Why wouldn't I be?" I questioned, stuttering once. Seifer's face fell for a second before it just went blank.

"Just wondering. So what do you want to do now?" Seifer changed the subject, which I was kind of bummed about, but I was also grateful.

"I was thinking that, you know, since I'm hurt and there are people out there looking to beat me up again, I should just stay in and play video games." I stated. Seifer nodded. We made our way back to my bedroom. Seifer sat uncomfortably beside me on my bed as I turned on my Playstation 3. I grabbed the nearest game, which happened to be Assassin's Creed, and started playing.

After about 25 minutes Seifer relaxed beside me. I smiled slightly. He would get used to being around me, he had to get used to it. I paused the game and turned towards him.

"Seifer.. do you think that they are watching us right now?" I asked. It had crossed my mind a few times, and I was starting to feel self conscious.. which was unusual. Except for when I was next to Seifer. Then again, I was sure everyone felt that way around Seifer, except my mom of course. Well, my mom was always the exception to every rule.

"Possibly." Was the only thing he said.

"What do you mean possibly?"

"Well, if I was them, I would make sure you were watched 24/7. But I'm smarter than them.." Seifer said, all cocky and shit. It was kind of hot..

"So are you going to go home anytime soon?" Seifer gave me a funny look.

"Chickenwuss, if you want me to leave then I'll leave when your mom gets back. I need to get ready for school tomorrow anyways." Seifer stated. Just then I heard the front door open and shut.

"Hayner I'm home!" My mom's voice floated up the stairs.

"Oh, well, then I'll be going now then." Seifer said, getting off the bed.

"Wait Seifer!" I exclaimed and turned off my PS3 quickly before walking him down the stairs. At the front door my mom gave him a hug and left the room. I stood there awkwardly, wondering if I should also give him a hug.

"Um... well... bye." Seifer said. He sounded unsure as well. Then I kind of freaked when he started to open the door. I did something that I shouldn't have. I hugged Seifer. Well, he was turned away from me and I just kind of stepped forward and wrapped my arms around his waist. He tensed, which was expected. I didn't expect him to be relaxed about it. We just stayed like that for a few minutes. To my surprise he actually started to relax. I stepped away from him and he turned towards me.

"Well, starting tomorrow are we not going to be showing PDA? I just thought maybe we should get used to physical contact a little.." I explained myself a little. Seifer nodded.

"Yeah, that's a good idea." Seifer said and pulled me into another hug. "Night chickenwuss." he said while he held me close to him. I heard him sigh a little, or I thought I did. Sometimes I imagined things that I wanted to happen.

"Night ass-hat." I said back as he released me. He smirked at me and stepped out of the house.

"I'll be back in the morning to walk you to school." Seifer said and turned away from me and walking towards where I assumed his house was.

It was hard to fall asleep. I assumed it was because I wanted Seifer there with me. It had only been 2 nights, but still it was comforting knowing that there was someone beside me, protecting me. I had finally managed to fall asleep at around 1:30 in the morning. Then I had a dream. A very interesting dream.

_Seifer smiled at me, a genuinely happy smile. It made my heart race. I felt proud, like I had caused his happiness somehow. He walked towards me and kissed my forehead. Then he pulled me into a hug. When he pulled away I got yet another kiss on the forehead. Then on the nose, then on the cheek. He secured my chin between his calloused forefinger and thumb. Tilting my head to the left he brought his lips to my neck..._

**.BEEP. **My damn alarm clock beeped annoyingly, tearing me out of the dream. I wanted that fucking dream to continue thank you very much. I slapped my alarm clock to shut it up and stared at the ceiling. Two seconds after I considered falling back asleep my mom burst into the room, beaming with happiness like usual.

"Morning my love!" My mother sang. "Are you excited for school today?" She asked this ever morning and the answer was always no, but then she added something new."And Seifer.." I smiled a little. That was right. I would get to see Seifer and today was the day that we were going to start fake dating for real.

"Actually, I am excited." I stated, sitting up and smiling back at my mother. She squealed and clapped her hands, then twirled out of my room and a little ways down the hall. A few seconds later her head popped into my room again.

"Oh, breakfast is ready. Hurry up sweetheart and get ready I have to go in a little early today so I called Seifer and asked him if he could come early." With that she was skipping cheerily down the hall. I blushed a little, not really sure why, but I did. Then I got out of bed and went down into the kitchen to eat breakfast.. or more accurately, inhale breakfast. Then I ran back into my room, collected some clothes, showered, changed, and brushed my teeth quickly. Finally ending with fixing my hair, three times. I started to get nervous. It was the first time I would ever show any sort of affection towards anyone. I never really had enough courage to ask out anyone I liked, it's not that I liked a lot of people. In all reality I had liked Roxas a long time ago and then Seifer from then until now. I looked away from my reflection in the mirror when I heard a knock on the door. _Seifer._ I hurried out of the bathroom and down the stairs.

"Seifer! Hi! Hayner is running down the stairs now, and I really have to go. Talk to you two love birds later!" My mother sand as she hurried out the door and headed off to work. Seifer just stood there staring at the spot my mom used to stand.

"Seifer, let's go!" I said, grabbing my bag from beside the door and pushing him towards the sidewalk. I shut and locked the door and hurried towards school. Seifer followed closely. When we started to near where Roxas and I usually met up every morning Seifer grabbed my hand. I looked at him weirdly, before remembering that we had to show PDA. I tried to act normal, and I think I was doing a great job. The moment Seifer and I came into view Roxas stared at our intertwined hands. He sent me a confused look and I just smiled slightly. When we got within talking range he didn't say anything about it and just acted normal. We made small talk about how our weekends went, Axel and Seifer were quiet while Roxas and I told the basics of the weekend. I didn't say anything about Seifer and I except that he stayed over.

"Your mother must love that." Roxas laughed. I blushed, but laughed along with him.

"She does." I said back.

"That's one reason why I won't bring Axel there anymore.. last time was really scary. Does she still have those pictures?" Roxas asked. I nodded, blushing more. My mom always found some way to embarrass me. We were in front of the school now and Pence and Olette joined us. They two stared at Seifer's hand intertwined with my own. They didn't say anything either. My friends never brought up anything in the company of others. They would find a way to get me alone and ask me about it. I saw Rai and Fuu standing by the front doors. Seifer pulled me close and pecked me on the lips. He didn't pull away though, just hovered just about my lips. I pecked him back and he smiled, dropping my hand.

"See you later chickenwuss." He called over his shoulder.

"Later jackass!" I called after him. He flipped me off without even turning towards me. I chuckled and turned towards my gawking friends. "What?" I questioned, feigning innocence.

"What the hell do you mean by 'What?'?" Roxas asked me.

"Yeah, dude, what's going on with you and Seifer. I thought you two were like 'I hate you!' 'Well, I hate you more!'" Pence added. I jokingly glared at him.

"Tell us what happened!" Olette begged. I stared at my three best friends, and Axel. Then I looked towards where Seifer had gone to. He wasn't there anymore and neither were Rai or Fuu. He never gave me a story to tell my friends, so I wasn't sure what to say.

"Guys, I'll explain it later, okay? Now we have to get to class or we'll be late!" I said, rushing towards the doors. From behind me I heard Roxas.

"When has he ever really cared about being to class on time?" Roxas asked. I never heard a response, but I'm sure someone said never. I hurried to my locker and then to class. Seifer and I had a few classes together, but they were after lunch. I sat down in my usual seat, but then something I never expected to happen happened.

"Hayner! That's your name right? Hi, I'm Emil." Some random kid came up to me and sat down beside me. He was smiling, but it was fake. I felt instantly on alert.

"Hi. Are you new here?" I asked. He nodded ecclesiastically. He was trying to seem innocent, and to anyone else it would have come off as innocent, but I knew innocence. I had met Sora, and just look at my mom. That was true innocence, this kid was just a fake. "Your with them aren't you?" I asked even though I already knew what his answer would be. He gave me a fake confused look.

"Them?" He asked. I glared at him.

"Just stay away from me, okay? I'm not stupid." I stated. The innocent look on his face faded and he sighed, standing up he started walking away. "By the way, you an excellent actor, I'm just harder to fool then most people." I said. He smirked at me and saluted me before going and sitting in the far back of the room. Just then Roxas walked in and looked at Emil. He glared at him and sat down beside me.

"Watch out for that new kid." He warned. I nodded, even though I was already aware of the danger he posed, even though Roxas didn't he could always feel.. well, he could usually feel when something weird was going on. The bell rang and Mr. Duncan walked in the room.

"Okay class, let's get started."

~~Authors Note~~

Hahah I just have to say Ninja Mafia Mistress , your amazing. You totally guessed what had happened! And mizukicrandall thank you for the nice review. I actually based Hayner's mom off of me :)


	5. Chapter 5

Emil. Who exactly was he? I mean, he lacked great acting skills and he kind of seemed like a clueless kid, but there was something deeper that I could feel. It was almost like he was a leader of some kind. He didn't seem to be afraid of me knowing that he was with the other gang. He had to know that I would tell Seifer as soon as possible. He just wasn't afraid. As far as I knew he was the only member of the rival gang that came to this school. There was no one to back him up if he got in trouble with Seifer or his gang. Either this kid was cocky beyond extreme, or he was just crazy. Maybe he was the little brother of the leader? That would explain why he seemed so unafraid. I stopped walking down the hall and looked behind me. The hall was filled with students. It was lunch after all. I scanned the crowd looking for black spiky hair with light brown tips. I saw the hair half way behind a corner. Emil had been stalking me the entire day. Somehow he managed to get every one of my classes up until now. I wasn't sure about my later classes which I had with Seifer, but I guessed he had those too. I turned back around and started hurrying faster towards the lunch room. The sooner I got to Seifer, the safer I would feel. As I opened the doors to the lunch room I saw Seifer waiting for me which I was thrilled about. I hurried to his side.

"Chickenwuss." Seifer greeted, giving me a hug. I actually smiled. I couldn't believe he was using that insult as a pet name for me.

"Hey ass-hat." I greeted back. He smirked at me. Yeah, that's his pet name. We're so sweet aren't we?

"Let's get lunch and sit." Seifer said getting into line. I joined him, but turned around. A few people down I saw Emil watching us like a hawk. The look in his eyes scared me. He sent Seifer death glares, but when he looked at me... it was... different? I don't know, it's hard to explain the look that was in his eyes. I turned back towards Seifer.

"Seifer, there's this new kid.." I said. He turned around, giving me a confused look. "The new kid. Well, his name's Emil. Well, that's what he told me his name was. He's in the other gang, and he's been stalking me since we met this morning in first period." I told him. Seifer's eyes narrowed and he scanned the crowd behind us. I knew that he had seen Emil because suddenly his blue eyes narrowed dangerously and he growled a little in his throat. Then he looked away and hurried through the line, gathering our food and paying for it quickly. We sat down at a separate table. Our friends were all at another table, sending us confused, and Roxas was sending Seifer angry, looks.

"I can't believe he would have the _nerve_ to set foot here. Or talk to you for that matter!" Seifer whispered angrily. I just stared at him in shock.

"You know him?" I questioned.

"Yeah I know him. He's the jackass who put you into all of this danger!"

"Wait. He's the person who told their leader that we were dating?"

"No no no. Hayner. He is their leader. He's the one that told those bastards to beat the _shit_ out of you. It's all _his_ fault! Then he comes here and watches you himself. Ugh, the way he was looking at you. It was _disgusting_." Seifer raged on. I was confused. I knew he was looking at me, and it was different from the way he looked at Seifer and everyone else, but I had no clue what look he was giving me. I had no clue that it was disgusting.

"What way does he look at me?" I asked. Seifer broke out of his angry fuming and stared at me.

"You haven't noticed?" He asked. I shook my head. Seifer reached across the table and hit me in the head. "Your and idiot. When he looks at you his eyes are lustful. Just that. Lust. Nothing else. Not love, not hate, just _lust_. It's sickening." I wasn't sure how to take this information. Emil lusted for me? Was that even possible? I didn't think I was that good looking, but I knew that I wasn't ugly. I was just an average teenage boy. I wasn't even aware of anyone who had even had a crush on me my entire life. Not once had anybody mentioned liking me. No rumors or anything. I was glad for that actually, I didn't have to worry about people crushing on me and I wouldn't hurt anyone by my actions. I could be me and not have to worry about anything. But having someone lust for me was a totally new concept.

"It's weird for someone to like me in that way.." I stated. Seifer looked confused beyond help.

"What?" He asked."He doesn't like you. He lusts for you. There are no other feelings."

"I know, but no one has lusted for me... ever. Well, as far as I know." Seifer stared at me in disbelief.

"Chickenwuss, you have no clue how many people would die to even be fake dating you." Seifer stated.

"Yeah. Right." I laughed. " Thanks for trying to make me feel better, but there's really no need. I like it this way. The less people who like me in that way, the less people there is to hurt someday."

"Fine don't believe me. One thing is clear though. Emil wants you. He want's you _bad._ The only thing standing in his way is me. Your going to have to be extra careful. His next command is not going to beat the living shit out of you again. It's going to be to kidnap you and bring you to him."

"So.. from now on I can't go anywhere without you." I stated. I wasn't going to ask a stupid question like that, I already knew the answer. Seifer nodded. I looked down at the table and sighed. "I don't understand why he wants me.." I whispered more to myself then anyone else.

"Hayner, your not bad looking." Seifer stated. I choked on my own breath and started coughing. After a minute I was able to breath right again and I stared at him in disbelief.

"Seifer.. you just complimented me without insulting me." I said and smiled. Maybe he wasn't a jackass fully.

"I wasn't done talking yet." Seifer stated and my face fell. Nope, he's still a jackass. Seifer smiled and laughed. " I was joking, chickenwuss, do you have no sense of humor?" Seifer said laughing. I glared at him.

"I have a sense of humor, you just suck at telling jokes." I countered. Seifer just laughed more, and I couldn't stay mad. I stared laughing to. We just sat their laughing for about 5 minutes. Once we sobered up we noticed that the whole lunchroom was staring at us. I blushed and Seifer glared. The lunchroom burst into gossip about us. All I heard was 'Seifer' and 'Hayner'. My friends were the only ones still staring at us.

"Well this makes things easier... the rumors are out now, I guess we can speed up telling your friends that were dating." Seifer said, using his fingers as quotation marks when he said dating.

"Great." I stated then laughed. "What exactly am I going to tell them?" I asked. Seifer thought for a second.

"Say to them 'It was a crazy weekend and we bonded a lot. He's not such a bad guy once you get to know him.' Word for word. If they ask what happened, just make yourself blush, or act like you blushing and avoid the question any way possible."

"It's not that easy with my friends. When they really want to know something then they are the most persistent people in Twilight Town." It was a true statement. I had avoided their questions this morning because I ran away, then Roxas tried to ask me again in class and I ignored him. The moment he got me alone again he was going to interrogate me. I was positive on that fact.

"Your just going to have to deal with it until we can come up with a story." Seifer said and stared eating. I also started eating, but I also started thinking of a story to tell them. In a weekend, what would happen that would cause Seifer and I to start dating? I didn't want to lie to them too much.. but I didn't want them to know what was going on.

"For the story, what do you think about telling them most of the truth. Like, after I got beat up that badly my mom was worried so she asked you to be around me like all the time and then we just kind of found out how much in common we had and, then something big happened. I'm not sure what it would be, but it would have to be really big. Then here we are now?" I asked. Seifer put his pointer finger to his chin. I guess he did that when he was thinking.

"That's actually a good plan. What would the big thing that happened be though?" Seifer asked. I wasn't sure if he was asking me or himself because the question was quiet.

"It would have to be something emotionally bonding." I said. He nodded in agreement. 7 minutes passed, yes I counted, and he still hadn't said anything. He wasn't even looking at me. He was just staring at the tabletop. He let out a deep breath and looked me in the eyes.

"I'm not sure your going to like this, but it's the only thing I can think of that could make us begin to date, if we were ever going to date." Seifer warned. I swallowed nervously.

"What is it?" I asked wearily. He sighed and grabbed both of my hands in his before looking me straight in the eyes.

"Sex." Was the only word he said.

"What?" I said a little to loudly, which caused people to look our way. I blushed fiercely and looked at the table.

"Just hear me out." Seifer said loudly for everyone to hear. More people seemed to tune into our conversation. "Your going to have to tell them about it sometime Hayner. It's not such a big deal anyways, I mean, I love you. You said you loved me to. That's what people who love each other do." I gaped at him, blushing even more than I though I could possibly blush. My eyes had to have been comically wide. Seifer looked like he was trying not to laugh so hard.

"Oh god." I said coming back to my senses. I had to play along. "Do we have to talk about this now Seifer?" I questioned looking around to all the people watching us again. Seifer did also.

"What the fuck are you all looking at? Mind your own fucking business!" Seifer scolded them all. They all looked away from us and started talking about nothing in particular. No one dared talk about our 'conversation'. Seifer smiled at me proudly and I let out a deep breath. "Dumb ass." He insulted me. I glared at him, but that only made his smile grown.

"Your mean Seifer." I said back crossing my arms.

"Yes, that I am... _love._" Seifer laughed. "We make a good act lamer. I might have you help me out with scaring my landlord some time."

"Why, your landlord a homophobe or something?" I asked. He nodded.

"Yeah. He knows I'm gay so he's always picking on me and shit. I'd like to tease him a bit. Hopefully he doesn't kick me out, but that would be okay with me. I've been thinking about moving somewhere else anyways." Seifer explained. I knew that Seifer didn't live with his parents. Everyone did. I just didn't know where his parents were.

"We'll have to do that once all of this is over." I said and he laughed. Just then the bell rang. We dumped our trays and headed off to our next class, which we had together. I wasn't surprised when I saw Emil sitting in the back were Seifer usually sat. Seifer immediately glared at him and walked over to where I usually sat, which was in the middle row. None of my friends had this class with me so I usually sat alone, but that has changed I guess. We got assigned into groups for a project. There was an odd number of people in the class so there was one group of three. That just happened to be my group. In my group there was me, Seifer, and... Emil. Let's just say that we weren't the most efficient group in the classroom. If Emil even looked at me Seifer growled and pulled me closer to him. Emil just smirked at Seifer, unafraid. The tension was horrible. You could feel their hatred for each other radiating off them. Emil reached over for a glue stick, which just happened to be near my hand and he 'accidentally' brushed against my hand.

"What the fuck is your problem! Don't touch him!" Seifer yelled, yanking me into his lap. I yelped ungracefully. Emil glared daggers at Seifer and Seifer glared back defiantly. "He's mine, don't ever touch him again." Seifer growled. He said it with such intensity, I almost believed that I was his. I wasn't his though, as much as I wanted to be. Emil smirked at Seifer and the bell rang.

"He won't be yours much longer." Emil stated and walked out of the classroom. Seifer growled in his throat and I could feel his whole body heat up in a mad flush. I didn't dare say anything and neither did the teacher who was looking at us worriedly. After a minute Seifer seemed to calm down a little. He buried his face in my shoulder and wrapped his arms around my waist.

"Hayner." Seifer said quietly. He sounded kind of sad.

"Yeah?" I answered back.

"I'll protect you from that bastard. No matter what. He won't get you. I promise you that." Seifer said, into my shoulder.

"I know Seifer. I know." I comforted him. Then I put my hands over his hands and he let out a sigh.

"We should get going." Seifer said, unwrapping his arms and pushing me off his lap. I jumped up and grabbed my things and we headed off to our next class, 3 minutes late. The teacher didn't say anything to us and just continued on with her lesson. Roxas and Axel had this class with us and we all sat near each other. Roxas was quick to pass a note asking why we were late. I hid the note, deciding not to answer back. I know Roxas was going to be mad at me for not explaining anything to him, but I just couldn't right now. Once it was all over I would tell him everything, but I had to protect him as much as I could, and this was the only way I could do that. I just hoped that Emil wouldn't focus on my friends and use them as a way to get me away from Seifer. It would be the smart move, but Emil didn't seem all that smart... but then again he might be acting stupid? I guess the only thing I could do was stay close to Seifer and wait for everything to play out the way it was meant to be played out.


	6. Chapter 6

It had been 4 days since Emil had shown up at school. Just 2 days ago I explained everything to my friends about Seifer and my relationship. Well, I told them the story. Whatever. Roxas flipped out on me and kind of yelled at me. Then he turned on Seifer and I had to keep them away from each other. Once Seifer and I were alone we started laughing like maniacs. My mom had tried to talk me into admitting my feelings to Seifer a few times, but I flat our refused. What would that do to our relationship now? I really hoped that after this whole gang thing was straightened out Seifer and I could at least still be friendly rivals. Every day in 4th period Seifer would make me sit as far away from Emil as possible, and we didn't really get anywhere with out project. So I decided to take it home and just do it all. Of course Emil offered to come to my house and help me with it, and Seifer _politely _told Emil that if he stepped foot in my house he would rip his balls off and make him eat them. It also seemed like Seifer was showing more and more PDA everyday, just to piss Emil off. I started to feel like a possession.. but I wouldn't say anything to Seifer about it. I wasn't sure how his reaction would be but it would probably include Seifer reminding me that it was all an act, which I was beginning to think he was lying about. In just one school week Seifer had seemed to get extremely possessive of me. For example Olette hugged me once like she had many times before and Seifer had ripped me away from her and growled. Then he got this surprised look on his face, like he didn't know why he had just did what he did. I asked my mom what she thought of Seifer's feelings towards me. She smiled and left the room. Everything started to just fall into place. Seifer liked me, I was sure of it, but then he'd look at me, straight in the eye, and assure me that it was all an act. It was like he was killing me over and over and over again. I was confused, oh so confused. I got a headache if I even started thinking about it.

"Hayner. I know it's Friday, but please pay attention." The teacher said. I looked at her in confusion for a second wondering where I was. Then I remember I was at school, in last period.

"Yes ma'am. Sorry about that." I apologized. Mrs. Kirkland nodded and carried on with her lesson. I tried to pay attention. I really did, but my head was pounding. Plus someone threw a piece of paper and it hit my head. I looked at the desk to the right of mine and saw Seifer looking at me. I unfolded the paper and read it. _Chickenwuss, you okay?_Seifer's handwriting was so easy to read. Yet, it wasn't girly at all. It was just very clean. **_No, I have a headache._** I wrote back in my messy handwriting and threw it back at him. He read it and scribbled something down before giving it back to me. _Is that it? You seem to be getting a lot of headaches. Maybe you should go to the doctors and get checked out._**_ It's nothing Seifer._** _Yes, it is something lamer. I'm worried. I'll talk to your mom about it__**.**_ **_Why do you even care? __It's not going to mess up the act._** _Hayner. I care about you. I'm not worried about the act. I know it won't be affected. I just want to make sure your alright. **What's up with you Seifer? You care about me? HA! It makes you sound like you like me or something.**_It took him a few minutes to send the paper back, like he was unsure how to answer what I wrote. I was surprised what it said when he did send it back. _Hayner, I do like you. Your not a bad person._I stared at the paper in disbelief. _Seifer liked me? Does he mean that he likes me in the way I like him or does he mean as a friend? _My mind reeled. I had no clue what to write back. Should I admit my feelings towards him? But what if he meant that he liked me as a friend? That would ruin everything that we had built up. I had to write something back. **_Your not so bad yourself Seifer. Of course your still an ass, but I like you somewhat also._** I wrote back. When Seifer read it he laughed and the teacher sent him a confused look.

"Is there something funny about my lesson Mr. Almasy?" Mrs. Kirkland questioned. Seifer shook his head, trying hard not to laugh again.

"Nope. There's nothing funny about your lesson ma'am." Seifer replied. Mrs. Kirkland nodded back at him and continued on with her unfunny lesson. Seifer smiled as he replied._Your going to end up getting me in trouble! Anyways, you do know what I mean by like right?_ I blinked a couple times at the question. If I said no, then I would never understand what he meant by it, but also if I said no he would probably ask me what I meant by like and that might end badly. If I said yes, then I would have no clue what his feelings for me were. _**Ugh... I think I know what you mean by it.. What did you mean by it?**_ I passed the note back to him. He read it and started writing his reply. _Watching Seifer write is more entertaining then Mrs. Kirkland's lesson. That's sad. _I thought to myself. _What did you mean by it? _**_I asked you first._** _Your just going to have to find out later chickenwuss. ; p_ I stared at his writing. Was he making fun of me? I couldn't decide. It's hard to tell what words mean when you can't hear the person behind them actually talking. I was going to answer but at that moment the paper was ripped off of my desk. My head shot up and saw Mrs. Kirkland reading the note. I shot a glance at Seifer who was staring at the note fiercely. If she decided to read it to the class people might realize that Seifer and I were not actually dating. That would be a bad thing... right? I mean we started this whole act so that when the time came it would be easier to lure Emil's gang to us. If he found out it was a trick, that wouldn't work anymore and he would stop coming after me. Wait, he didn't just want me to get to Seifer though. He wanted me because I was Seifer's. If I wasn't Seifer's, would he still want me like he did now? Mrs. Kirkland glared at me and Seifer and was about to say something but I interrupted her.

"Seifer! I need to talk to you. Right now." I said, jumping up and grabbing my stuff and heading out into the hall. Seifer followed me closely. Once we were alone in the hallway I started explaining my thoughts to him. " I think Emil wants me because you have me and not him. So if he found out that we aren't together, do you think he would still come after me?" I ended. He thought for a second.

"Hayner... you might be right about that. I can't risk it though! What if he comes after you anyways if he find out? We can't risk this getting out okay? From now on, even if we're passing noted, we have to make it sound like we're going out." Seifer said to me. I nodded in understanding. "Now let's go get that damn paper back before she reads it." Seifer said, marching back into the room. I chuckled a bit and followed him. The moment I entered the room I heard her reading the note.

"Yes, it is something lamer. I'm worried. I'll talk to your mom about it**." **Mrs. Kirkland read. Seifer snatched the paper away from her.

"Thank you." He said and walked back out of the door. The whole class stared at me. I stared back. A few seconds later Seifer came back into the room and grabbed the back of my shirt and started dragging me out of the room. Once we were outside the room he let go of me and started walking down the hall towards the front doors. I followed after him quickly. We walked out of the school and down to the Sandlot where we sat on the same bench we sat on together the first time. Seifer turned towards me with a serious look on his face.

"Let's get to know each other a little better." Seifer stated out of no where. I tilted my head to the left and shrugged my shoulders.

"Okay sure. Who goes first?" I asked. He thought for a second before answering.

"I'll go first. Where's your dad?" He asked.

"Dead. Where's your dad?" I asked back.

"He lives in Hollow Bastion with my mom. Why do you and your mom look nothing alike?"

"My mom isn't my biological mom. I don't know who my biological mom is. She's dead too. I was put into Twilight Town Orphanage when I was 4 years old. I don't remember my parents at all. My mom right now adopted me when I was 6. She was the Therapist at the Orphanage and just took a liking to me." Seifer didn't say anything. "Why do you live here if your parents live in Hollow Bastion?"

"When they moved my Grandma lived here. She wanted a family member to take care of her, so I volunteered to stay here. Then when my dad found out I was gay he disowned me and my mom was to afraid to stand up to him, so when my Grandma died a few years ago my mom just sent me some money and I got myself a job and an apartment and I've just lived here ever since." We were both quiet. Our life stories weren't the happiest. "Anyways. What's your favorite food?" Seifer asked, changing the subject off of family. I was okay with that. I knew what I wanted to know.

"Chocolate." I answered back truthfully. Seifer looked at me.

"Seriously?" He asked. I nodded. He shrugged and laughed. "So that's why you would always watch me eat chocolate bars." I nodded again and laughed.

"I'm actually addicted to chocolate. My mom has forbidden me from eating any until I'm able to control myself around it." I laughed again. So did Seifer.

"Now I know." We just kept laughing, at what, I'm not exactly sure. Maybe we were just glad that at this moment we could just forget about all of our troubles and focus on meaningless things. Or we were just crazy which was always an option. After what had to have been 5 minutes we stopped laughing and just sat there smiling at each other.

"Hayner... I don't know why we ever became rival in the first place." Seifer admitted.

"I don't know why either.." We looked each other in the eyes, our breathing still a bit heavy from laughing so hard.

"I don't want to be rivals anymore." Seifer said. I nodded in agreement. Seifer stuck his hand between us. "Friends?"

"Friends." I said taking his hand in mine and shaking it. We both smiled.

"SWEET." I heard Fuu yell. Rai laughed and Seifer and I both looked at them. They were just walking into the Sandlot.

"Oh shut up." Seifer yelled at them, but then he laughed. Rai and Fuu were now right in front of us and the atmosphere around us suddenly turned serious.

"PLAN?" Fuu's voice changed just the slightest, indication it was a question.

"You already know about Hayner and I. Now all I need to do is get Emil a little more infatuated with Hayner. Then we'll wait and see what he does when I do something extreme with Hayner right in front of him. I want him to make the first move." Seifer explained. My eyes widened when he said extreme.

"So we should be ready for a big fight soon, y'know?" Rai asked. Seifer nodded.

"Um, excuse me." I squeaked a bit. Seifer looked towards me and he smirked.

"Yes chickenwuss?" He asked. I cleared my throat and took a deep breath.

"What do you mean by extreme?" I questioned. His smirk grew and he threw his arm around my shoulders. He brought his mouth close to my ear and I could feel his hot breath on my skin. I shivered involuntarily.

"Don't worry about that chickenwuss, you'll like it." He whispered into my ear. My breathing increased along with the size of my eyes. Seifer pulled away after about a minute. "You smell like chocolate chickenwuss." Seifer said and then laughed. I blushed and looked down. Rai was smiling at us like he had some sort of inside knowledge, and Fuu? Well she had a tiny smile on her face, which surprised me slightly. I knew she could smile, I just didn't know what kinds of things made her smile. Seifer was still laughing. I glared playfully at him and punched him in the arm. He smirked back at me and growled before tackling me. We rolled around on the ground for a while, playfully hitting each other and trying to pin each other. We were laughing like little kids. All in all we were having fun. It was really really awesome. Finally Seifer managed to pin me to the ground. He held both of my hands above my head and straddled my waist. We were both breathing heavily again, but we were still laughing slightly.

"I like this position chickenwuss, don't you?" Seifer teased me. I tried to fight off a blush, but it won in the end. I started to struggle against Seifer's hold, but it was no use. He wasn't going to let me go so easily.

"Seifer." I growled at him. He just smirked at me.

"Stop moving around chickenwuss." Seifer said, leaning his face close to mine, successfully making me stop struggling against him. "Good." He praised and licked my ear. For a second I forgot where I was, I forgot that it was all an act, but that second passed and everything came back to me. I was in the Sandlot, pinned to the ground, with Seifer above me kissing my neck like a hungry animal, and it was all an act. I felt sincerely sad. None of that slightly sad shit. I felt like someone had just ripped my heart out and cut it into pieces right in front of me. This whole week, I had let myself hope that maybe, just maybe his factions meant something else and it wasn't just an act to him. I was stupid, that was the wost thing I could have done. I felt my eyes start to water and my lip started the shake. I was fighting a losing battle with my emotions. Salty tears slipped from my eyes and ran down my cheeks. Seifer stopped everything he was doing and let me go. He stared at me in bewilderment and wiped the tears off of my face.

"Hayner?" He asked softly. I shook my head and bit my bottom lip. Seifer climbed off of me and pulled me into his lap. He wrapped his arms around me and started stroking my hair.

"This is all an act." I whispered to Seifer. He froze all his movements like he was surprised by what I said.

"Is it?" Seifer whispered back after he got over his shock. I gasped. "I know that I always say that it's all an act, but is it really?" Seifer continued on. He pulled away from me and looked me in the eyes. "Tell me Hayner. Is this just an act to you?" He asked. I stared at him wide eyed, not sure what to say. I opened my mouth to answer, but nothing came out, so I shut my mouth again. I tried to talk again and once again my voice failed me. I shook my head then, since talking was out of the question. I looked down and shook my head more fiercely, just to make sure he saw my answer. I couldn't continue acting like it was nothing to me.

"Hayner." Seifer said softly. He pitied me now didn't he? "Do you love me?" He asked. I looked into his eyes, but didn't answer. What would he do if I told him that I did love him, and yes, I did love him. I had fallen for him hard. He took my face in his hands and asked me again. "Hayner, tell me. Do you love me?" I took a deep breath and shut my eyes tightly.

"Yes." I whispered. I heard an intake of breath and tears began to slip from my eyes again. He hated me now. He would throw my to Emil happily and stop caring. Not even my mom could stop him from hating me now.

"Hayner." Seifer said and pulled me into a bear hug. I opened my eyes. He was hugging me? "You love me. That's such a relief." Seifer added.

"What?" I asked, totally confused. What was going on? He was hugging me not pushing me away or beating me. He was saying that it was a relief that I loved him and not yelling that he hated me.

"Hayner. I love you too. " Seifer whispered in my ear.

"Really?" I asked joyfully, tears now forgotten completely. I felt Seifer nod. I laughed a little. He loved me. He actually loved me. I'm pretty sure I was going into hysterics once I started laughing like a maniac. Seifer pulled away and smiled at me, but his eyes looked confused. "Sorry. Sorry." I said in between laughter. He started laughing with me, which just made the whole situation worse.

"You two are crazy, y'know?" Rai said, which just made us laugh harder.

"Insane." Fuu corrected. Yeah. I'm pretty sure we were insane, but that was okay now. We were happy. At that moment, all that mattered was the fact that we loved each other. Nothing could have ruined that moment.

~~Author Note~~

I think I'm going to end up redoing this chapter.. I probably will.


	7. Chapter 7

"Sooooooo...?" My mom asked wiggling her eyebrows at me as I stuffed another spoonful of Lucky Charms into my mouth.

"Sho whumat?" I said. My mother just stared at me for a second, waiting for me to actually chew and swallow my food before trying to pry information out of me again.

"You and Seifer are together now huh?" She inquired, calmly leaning back against the kitchen counter. She sounded composed but the look in her eyes was that of a feral fangirl, ready to pounce at any information that could lead to a OTP. I was about to shove another spoonful of cereal in my mouth just so that I didn't have to deal with a fangirling mother but she somehow got to my bowl before I had the chance and confiscated the cereal. A pout found it's way onto my face as I started longingly at the cereal.

"Tell me everything and then you can have this back." She said in her motherly voice. I sighed and ran my hand through my hair.

"Yeah.. we're together... for real." I couldn't help the slight smile that found it's way onto my face. I really was becoming a chick, wasn't I? My mom released a fangirl scream that would put all other fangirl screams before hers to shame. She clapped her hands together and waltzed over to me. I was then yanked into a bear hug and then forced to jump up and down until she noticed me weakly hitting her arm.

"C-can't... breathe... mom..." I finally got out.

"Oh!" She exclaimed before releasing (aka dropping) me back onto my chair. "Sorry.." She apologized with a sheepish smile gracing her lips.

"Just give me my cereal back." I kind of teased.. I really wanted my cereal. She smiled and pushed the bowl back towards me before walking to the kitchen door.

"He'll be here soon. Be safe today, dear." She said, not turning to face me. She didn't sound like her usual self. It was more of a sad statement, like something bad was going to happen. Then she just walked out of the room, leaving me staring after her with my spoon hanging half out of my mouth. Only a few seconds later Seifer walked into the kitchen.

"Did your brain finally give out? It's about time..." He said, leaning against the counter like my mother had only moments before.

"Wha.." I was about to ask but then decided to respond with, "Shut up asshole!" Yeah, I really had _the best_ comebacks.. Seifer just smirked his smirk at me.

"Finish your damn cereal and stop staring like an idiot." He said. I glared at him before shoving the last couple spoonfuls into my mouth and rinsing the bowl.

The god of Twilight Town and I walked towards the Usual Spot. I was kinda surprised that nothing between Seifer and I had really changed... We still held hands like we had been doing for a week and it was like our confessions to each other just hadn't happened, but I knew they did. The way we acted around each other, while doing the same things, just seemed way more relaxed. It felt _right_. I couldn't seem to shake off the impending sense of dread I had been feeling ever since my mother left the kitchen though. There was just something about the way she had acted that made me feel uneasy being out in public. I was on edge and I know Seifer could feel my nervousness.

"Hey, something wrong chickenwuss?" He asked as we turned and walked into the Sandlot. I glanced at him out of the corner of my eye.

"Um, no. Everything's alright.. I'm just on edge. It's probably just my imagination.." I said with a laugh, trying to not only assure him that my total weirdness wasn't something to worry about, but to assure myself too. He squeezed my hand a bit. That simple little act made me smile. I never knew an ass-hat like him could be so sweet. I wasn't complaining or anything, I quite liked the sweet Seifer.

"I've kind of felt of edge too today... there must be a storm coming or something.." He responded.

"Yeah..." I said, just to let him know that I was listening. At that point we had just reached the Usual Spot and I looked behind us as the curtain swayed shut. _I could have sworn.. _I thought to myself before shaking my head and settling myself on the couch next to Seifer. Or, I would have if he wouldn't have pulled me onto his lap and possessively wrapped his arms around my waist. Roxas, who was sitting where I usually sat, just kinda stared. Olette and Pence were off in their own world, talking about some science magazine or something. Axel, Fuu, an Rai were no where to be found.

"What's up?" I asked, trying to break the silence. Roxas sighed and ran his hand through his hair.

"Not much... Axel had to do something, he wouldn't tell me what." Roxas said.

"Doesn't he usually tell you everything?" Olette piped in, seemingly finished with the science conversation.

"If it doesn't involve his 'work' then he'll tell me.."

"Axel has a job?" I asked, totally unaware that the pyro could keep a stable job.. unless it had something to do with setting things on fire..

"Yeah, I don't know what it is though. Like I said, he won't tell me about it."

"I wonder if it's something bad.." Pence said. His brain-to-mouth filter was just as bad as mine.

"It's probably nothing bad." Olette said, sending a glare Pence's way. Roxas sighed again and looked at Seifer who had been surprisingly silent the entire time.

"What about you Hay'? How are things going?" He asked. I blinked and looked at Seifer for a second.

"Um... not bad. The ribs are feeling better... Mom's been making me get loads of calcium." I said. Things between the four of us still haven't exactly gone back to the way they were, so this awkward small-talk was beginning to become a common occurrence when we were around each other.

"That's good to hear..." Roxas said, still looking at Seifer. "How 'bout you Seifer?" He asked, being civil for once, which kinda surprised me. Roxas being nice to Seifer? It was a miracle!

"Nothing bad has happened." was Seifer's response. I mentally face-palmed. Roxas tries to be nice and Seifer just deadpans.. that was just like him. You could almost hear Roxas' eyes roll. The five of us were silent for a few minutes, Pence and Olette had gone back to talking about geek stuff and Roxas had found a new interest in studying his nails. I shifted in Seifer's lap, trying to find something that would make this less awkward. Usually when Axel was here he would be saying stupid stuff that would fill the silence and Roxas would be yelling at him for saying the stupid stuff, but without him everything was... dead. Then I finally thought something up. I'd have to thank my brain for being the genius that it is if this all played out right.

"Anyone want to go for a movie?" I asked. At least if we were watching a movie there would be some type of distraction. Roxas' eyes lit up. He was somewhat of a movie fanatic.

"Hell yeah! I've been wanting to see this one move for like, ever, but I haven't go the chance yet!" He exclaimed. Olette just laughed at Roxas' excitement and nodded.

"Sure Hay'. A movie sounds nice." Pence agreed. I smiled at my friends and then climbed out of Seifer's lap.

"Then let's go!" I said right before Roxas grabbed my hand and dragged me towards the movie theater. Once we all made it, Roxas and I had to wait a few minutes for everyone else to catch up, we got our tickets and all went our separate ways for our snacks. The second I was within reach Seifer locked hands with me and refused to let go. I could feel him glaring at Roxas.

"Oh calm your nuts you ass-hat, he was just excited." I teased as we waited for everyone to meet back up at the designated spot. He just looked away from Roxas and towards one of the walls. I rolled my eyes at that.

"Let's go get seats!" Roxas yelled as soon as everyone had made it back. Right before the movie started Seifer excused himself, saying that he had to make a call.

Half and hour later Seifer sat himself next to me, offering no excuse for being gone that long. I didn't question him either, I'd wait until later. I pushed all the weirdness to the back of my mind and forced myself to get lost in the movie.

Two hours later we filed out of the dark theater. Roxas was barely able to contain his happiness when the rest of us decided that we should go get lunch, being as it was only around 2.

"That was the best movie I've ever seen!" Roxas yelled at no one in particular.

"That's what you say about every movie you watch." I said with a laugh. Roxas stuck his tongue out at me before continuing.

"Did you see how that guy blew up the helicopter and then the alien just came out of no where and.." He stopped mid-sentence as we rounded a corner and he saw Emil standing there. Seifer, who had been messing with his phone most of the time, grabbed my hand and pulled me closer to him. Emil looked at our hands and smirked. His orange eyes connected with Seifer's blue ones.

"What a coincidence running into you guys like this." Emil said, his voice perfectly portraying that of a close classmate. He looked away from Seifer and at me. I held his gaze, feeling slightly disgusted when I saw the lust Seifer had talked about flash in his eyes.

"Not really." Roxas said. He wasn't trying to be nice to Emil at all. Roxas didn't like the guy and when he didn't like someone he sure as hell wouldn't hide it. Emil didn't even look at Roxas as he spoke. His eyes stayed locked on me.

"Well, we're going to go now.." Olette said, feeling the awkwardness in the air. Emil just smiled and waved us off, continuing on his way through town.

"_Soon._" Emil whispered as he passed by Seifer and I. Seifer did nothing to hide the feral growl that escaped his throat, which only made Emil laugh. The five of us just stood there, looking at one another for a few minutes.

"I don't like that bastard.." Roxas said.

"I don't either." Seifer growled again.

"So, we were going for lunch.." Pence said, reminding us of our previous goal.

"And Roxas was telling us about his favorite part of the movie." Olette added. Roxas' eye lit up once more and he started going off about the movie again while walking to the cafe we had decided to eat at. We all started following, trying to distract ourselves with Roxas' rambling. Seifer released my hand in favor for playing with his phone once more. I turned my head to look behind us. Emil was no where in sight but I had the feeling he was watching us.

_Soon._ That one word struck fear deep within my heart and I latched onto Seifer's arm, not caring if it hindered his phone messing abilities.

~Seifer's POV~

_Contact the Organization.. this thing's going down soon. We need to prepare._

~~Authors Note~~

I know it sucks major ass but I actually got enough sleep for once and that cuts my awesomeness by 50% so.. I'll try not to do that anymore. The next few ones should be better.. hopefully.. Thanks to those who reviewed, gave me inspiration to actually try and get myself to finish this story. ^.^"


	8. I am a bad person I am so sorry

Ugh guys I am super sorry like all the time for not finishing this and/or updating AFTER I SAID I WOULD FOR LIKE A LONG UGH! But I am going to try and finish this. I thought that I had lost all my ideas on this story, like eveything. My motivation and ugh but nope. Here I am. I AM BACK BABY! Haha yeah, sorry. I'll probably be able to give a chapter withing today, but I'm not entirely sure when the next one will be. Not in a year again I will hit myself with a house.

This lapse in updating had a bit to do with my once again forgetting my password and what email I used I should really get a tattoo of this stuff or something so I stop forgetting. If I hadn't forgotten AGAIN I probably would have updated a couple months ago but **sigh **at least I figured it out this time, yeah?

Please forgive me.


	9. Chapter 8

I looked down at my phone again for what seems like the millionth time today. Once again, there was no messages. No anything. I sighed and threw my phone onto my bed and started pacing my room again. It has been a week. A WEEK. Since Seifer had last talked to me. After the run-in with Emil after the movie and lunch he had walked me home and left. A quick squeeze to my hand and then he was gone. I mean, I don't have any prior experience with dating or boyfriends or any of it but I'm pretty sure that someone who is supposed to be dating you doesn't just stop talking to you for a week. I stop pacing and look back at my phone on my bed.

"Maybe if I try calling him again.." I say to myself, walking over to my bed and reaching for my phone. Then the anger sets in. It's become a regular occurrence for me to feel anger. "No. Hell no. Fuck him, you know I don't need him. Things are better like this anyways." I repeat for the 9th time today. I start pacing again. And then I start to think again, which has increasingly become a bad thing for me. What if he lied about loving me? How could he even love me in the first place, I was stupid to believe such a thing. He's never going to stop making fun of me for believing him. Then again, that's if he ever talks to me again which I'm starting to hope he never does. _That's not true._ The stupid, annoying voice says. I tell it to go die and leave me alone.

"Hayner, honey.." My mother's voice comes from outside my door. She lightly knocks a couple times when I don't answer. "Is it okay for me to come in?" She asks, but she doesn't open the door like a normal parent would. I stop pacing and just stand there staring at the door. A few minutes go by and it's completely silent but I know that she's still there, waiting. I sigh and sit on the edge of my bed.

"Yeah.." Is all I can manage to get out. The door opens to reveal a very worried woman. The face she's making reminds me of before when I was in the orphanage and she would have a session with me. Afterwords she'd always have that face as she watched me walk away.

"You want to talk?" She asks as she walked to my bed and sits beside me. There's space between us and I know she's being careful not to touch me. I stare at her hands which are folding politely in her lap. I reach out and grab one, leaving into her side a bit. She shifts to accept the contact and kisses the top of my head.

"Am I really that... Am I … Mom why hasn't he.." I try to ask her all the questions that have been running through my mind. All the poisonous thoughts and take hold in my heart and refuse to leave. They taunt me every chance they get and it's something I haven't felt since I was little. Since when I was parentless and friendless.

"Baby, he doesn't hate you. I don't know why he isn't talking to you but I'm sure it's for a good reason. I know he's tired of having you in danger like you are. But he's not dumping you. I really do believe that he loves you. He just wants to be able to be with you without always having to worry about leaving you alone for two seconds and coming back to an empty street." She says, trying to answer my unfinished questions the best she can. I stare down at our clasped hands and try to get rid of the pressure building behind my eyes. I want to believe my mom, but the poison thoughts refuse to budge. I know they won't just go away, even if what my mom says is true. Even if my mom tries to show me how much I am loved. I am grateful to have her, but a parent and a partner are two separate things. In my 16 years of life I have known that there are people that love me very much, people are are willing to love me for the rest of their lives. But parents and friends are not the same as lovers. There's something special about the way that a partner makes your heart beat faster with their smile or the happiness you get from being around them. It's like there's magma flowing through your veins and you feel alive. That's just not there with a friend or a parent.

"Yeah, you're right.." I say, just to try and make her feel like she's helped. One of her hands reaches up and wipes the wet streaks from my face, alerting me to the fact that I suck at not crying. She doesn't say anything else but I can tell that she already knows that she didn't help at all.

"I'm gonna hit that boy with a spoon next time he comes around for making you feel like this." She tells me, nodding her head a little to make it seem like a real plan. I smile to myself a bit at the mental picture of my mom hitting Seifer with a large spoon. I pull away from her and let myself laugh for the first time in a week.

"Can I record it?" I ask and she laughs with me.

"Absolutely." She says as she pulls me into a very motherly hug. She kissed the top of my head again and then pulls away, smiling a bit less sadly than before. She pats my cheek and stands up. "I'm gonna go make lunch." She says and walks out of my room before I get the chance to thank her.

I stare at my phone for the next 10 minutes making a list of pros and cons of trying to call him again. Pro: he might actually pick up and we can talk. Con: he doesn't and I just seem more like a crazy stalker. Pro: he might like the fact that I'm worried. Con: he might think I'm annoying and never talk to me again. So, I'm at a stalemate at what I should do when my phone beeps. I lunge at the poor thing and rip it open. 1 New Text Message. I open it as quickly as my fingers will move.

Seifer: Hey, sorry for not talking to you for a week. I was kinda busy with... stuff. I'm an ass-hat and a horrible person, but I'm coming over right now and I'm not going to leave until you forgive me.

I stare at the message. Not sure how to feel. That's it? 'Sorry for not talking to you for a week.'?

"Why do I even love you..?" I grumble to myself as I text him back, cussing him out and agreeing with his statement of him being a horrible person. Seifer just takes it, agreeing with every name I call him and apologizing again. This goes on until there's a knock at my front door and I race to open it.

Seifer is standing there, looking like complete and utter shit. His usually smooth skin is paler than usual and there's bags under his tired blue eyes. His usually smooth hair is sticking up all over the place and he's slouching like he just doesn't have the energy to stand up straight anymore. All thoughts of bitching him out more fly out the window and instead I pull him into my arms and maneuver him inside. The door shuts and Seifer sighs, wrapping his arms around my waist and rests his head on my shoulder. My mom walks into the room to see who just came in but when she sees Seifer she stops midstep, smiles brightly, and spins back into the kitchen.

"You look like shit." I voice the thought finally, but in a soft, joking manner. Seifer groans and moves his head away from my shoulder in order to look at my face.

"Back at'cha chickenwuss." He mumbles halfheartedly.

"See, I know you're lying because I'm always a sexy beast so.." I try to retort but it just comes out in a fond whisper. He doesn't say anything and just tightens his hold on me, resting his forehead on mine. "You okay?" I finally ask, not sure what else to do.

"Yeah, I'm okay now." Seifer answers and closes his eyes.

"You still look like shit though. Go lay down, I'll get you some lunch." I push him towards the couch and he lets me go in favor of shuffling his way over to it and falling face first into the cushions.

My mother pushes a tray with two plates of food at me the moment I walk through the archway into the kitchen. I look at her in surprise and scramble to get a proper grip on the tray so it doesn't fall. Her eyes are wide and bright again and she's making shooing motions with her hands. I roll my eyes at her and make my way into the living room where Seifer is still face first on the couch. It doesn't look like he's moved at all since I left a couple minutes ago. I set the tray on the coffee table and nudge his shoulder a bit.

"You still alive?" I say as I poke him again on his side. He groans in response and I let out a huff of laughter. "Come on, sit up so we can eat." He rolls onto his side and looks at my face.

"You still mad at me? Is that why you're torturing me?" He asks dramatically. I full on laugh.

"Stop being dramatic you ass-hat and sit the fuck up before I kick you." He sighs and drags himself into a sitting position. I drop myself into his lap and reach for the tray.

"Your mom make those?" He asks as he wraps on arm around my waist, other arm going for one of the sandwiches on the tray.

"No, I can just make sandwiches in 1 second." I reply sarcastically. He laughs slightly at that.

"You'd make a good house wife, chickenwuss." Seifer jokes back and I gasp.

"You are an asshole, you know that? A full fledged douche-nozzle." I answer back with jus enough malice to let him know that yes, I am sill mad at him. And the I don't like being compared to a house wife. "Call me a house wife again and I'm going to punch you in the nose."

"Bring it." He replies in his cocky voice, even though it isn't quite the same because he's probably almost at the brink of passing out in an ally tired. "But not right now because I'm tired as fuck." He adds and I smirk a bit. At least I know that I would win.

We sit there and eat in silence, which is nice too. Just being able to be in each others company is more than enough for me. I even forget to be mad at him for ignoring me for a week when he brushes a kiss against the back of my neck and whispers that we should go upstairs and sleep. I know that he literally means sleep, but my mind gets a little excited anyways. I tell it to shut up as I climb off his lap and almost bolt up the stairs. I can hear him chuckling from the living room and I can't help but notice that the poisonous thoughts are quickly shriveling and dying like they ought to be.

Happiness settles in my mind for the first real time in a week as I climb into bed beside Seifer and I promise myself that I'll never misplace it again.

~Authors Note~

I feel like this is slightly out of character and probably has quite a few mistakes because I am really tired and it's 4:30 am, but I might go over it later and fix those or maybe I'll just leave it and start writing the next chapter, I'm not quite sure.

I'd like to thank everyone who left such wonderful reviews because :3 wow you guys are wonderful~ *hugs you all and gives you sweets* I was honestly thinking about just deleting this story because I didn't know how to continue it but you guys just keep inspiring me to continue So thanks so much~~~ 3


	10. Chapter 9

** CLICK. **I groan and bury my face deeper into the pillows. **CLICK CLICK.** The hell is that? I think as I pull the pillow over my head.

"Oh, that's a good one." A whispered female voice reaches my ears, a quiet giggle following after. Then I understand. My body goes tense and I slowly remove the pillow from over my head, turning it to the side in order to see my door. My mother is standing there, holding the camera and looking down at the screen. I stare at her for a moment before speaking.

"Mother dearest.." Her head shoots up and her wide eyed gaze locks with my less then wide eyed one. **CLICK**. I hear as a sheepish smile appears on her face and then she's full out grinning like a madwoman and running down the stairs. I move to follow her but I can't because it's that moment that something locks around my waist and drags me across my bed.

"Just let her go lamer." A deep voice says as my body softly collides with something suspiciously like another body. Then the memories hit me. I smile ruefully and turn so I can face Seifer.

"Hey ass-hat, you feeling better?" I ask as I study his face. His eyes look a lot less tired than they did yesterday.

"That's most sleep I've gotten all week." He answers back after a yawn.

"Yeah, I can tell. What the hell have you been doing?" There's nothing like starting the morning off with a little interrogating. He stares at me blankly and I think that he won't answer but he finally does.

"I got tired of Emil making threats against you so I called a meeting. We've been planning. It's time to end this game of his." Seifer sounds confident and I can't help but feel a bit hopeful. It's a pain in the ass to not be able to leave your own house alone or stay in your house alone.

"When is it happening?" I ask, feeling a little swirl of nervousness brush the back of my mind. Gang wars are not the safest extracurricular activities on the planet. Well, wars in general are just unsafe. And I don't think any kind of war should be an extracurricular activity..

"Soon." He replies. I can feel my face drop into what is probably a spectacular bitch face. "I'll let you know when it's going down, but until then you really shouldn't worry about it." Seifer adds. My bitch face eases slightly, but I'm still not satisfied with that plan.

"Fine. I don't like it but fine." I say, feeling slightly defeated. I would have fought but Seifer seems hesitant to talk about it and if he really doesn't want me to know then he's not going to tell me anything more than he feels he should.

"It's best that I don't tell you too much. The more you know, the more of a threat you are." I blink up at him sarcastically. Or, well, as sarcastic as one can be with their face alone.

"Seriously? I'm already Emil's number one target. Telling me stuff isn't going to move me up the list any." I deadpan back, wiggling out of Seifer's hold so I can sit and look down at him.

"I wasn't talking about Emil, chickenwuss." He admits ashamedly. I stare at him in confusion. Who the hell is he talking about if it's not Emil? Is there someone else after me now too? Oh dear lord, please let thee not be another gang after me. "You really are slow, wow." Seifer sighs, turning so that he can sit up too. "My gang is affiliated with a couple other gangs. Those other gangs don't even trust me a lot of the time. If they find out that you know too, then they're going to be watching not only you, but me too. And I'm sorry, but I'm not a huge fan of being watched 24/7." He explains, so that my "slow" mind can grasp such a complex concept.

"I am not slow, ass-hat." I say defensively. He rolls his eyes at me so I punch him in the arm. "Shut up." I whine. Well, I don't whine per say but I.. Okay, yeah, I whine.

"I didn't even say anything." Seifer jokes, that cocky smirk of his settling onto his face. I try not to get distracted by how much I've missed the stupid look on his face. Like he's right or something.

"You were thinking. So shut up." I glare. He doesn't look any less interested in making fun of me. The asshole..

"Honestly, Hayner?" He asks, his eyebrow quirking up. I continue to glare at him, albeit a bit less out of defense and more because it's fun to pretend to be mad at him. And maybe the fact that he used my name is making my heart do weird things in my chest and it's making it hard to concentrate on glaring at him. I'm pretty sure he knows it too, because his self-satisfies smirk just gets freaking bigger like, no, that should not be possible.

"Keep smirking and I'm going to punch you in the face." I calmly inform Seifer. The smirk still does not falter in the least and I decided that it's time to be somewhere else. Preferably where ever my mother is, getting the camera before she can run away to send them to everyone we've ever met. I shudder at the thought and crawl off my bed.

"Hey, where are you going? Weren't you going to punch me in the face?" Seifer calls from the bed. I stop at the door and turn to him. He looks at me expectantly and I smile as sweetly as possible before flipping him the bird and walking out of the room. I can hear him chuckle all the way down the hall. I'm not sure if he's going to get up and follow me or not, but that doesn't really matter to me right now. What matters is the fact that my mother is standing at the bottom of the stairs, jacket half pulled on, camera in hand, staring at me like a deer in the headlights.

"Mom, don't you dare!" I yell as I start running down the stairs. She giggles and is out of the door before I'm even half way down the stairs. When I'm done flying down the stairs (more than likely missing the last half of them in an attempt to be faster), I scramble for the door and rip it open and stumble out onto the front steps. The only sign of my mother is the distant sound of manic giggles. I sigh and let my head drop in defeat. "Today is just not my day.." I mumble to myself as I rub the back of my head. Well, I guess that plan is a no-go.

"Hey lamer, you got anything to eat?" Seifer interrupts my pity party to ask. I turn and make my way back inside, closing the door and locking it just in case. Seifer just stands at the bottom of the stairs and waits for an answer.

"Don't you have your own house?" I ask skeptically. He laughs loudly and makes his way towards the kitchen.

"Wanna get rid of me so soon? You more of the stay the night, be gone by morning type of guys?" I fight the urge to laugh at his stupid jokes. They're not even that funny, and he's making fun of me. I shouldn't be laughing at that. So instead of laughing I push him into the kitchen on my way to the stairs.

"Yes, now go look for your own food and stop being a lazy ass. I'm going to take a shower."

"Good, you need one." He shoots back. I feel his eyes on my back as I start walking up the stairs towards the bathroom. I flip him off again and I can almost hear him roll his eyes. I roll my own in response and stop by my room to pick out some clothes. My eyes scan my nearly empty closet and it dawns on me that I should probably do my laundry. I grab a random shirt and some shorts and head off for the bathroom.

Once in the shower I let myself start to think. Just yesterday I was completely out of my mind with confusion. I spent the entirety of last week both fearing for my safety and my mother's safety. Honestly, if Emil really wanted me, I doubt the presence of my mother would stop him from trying. At every bang or clank my heart would start racing and I'd get ready to go protect my mom. That constant state of alert sure as hell doesn't make anyone more sane. That doubled with a constant stream of questioning thoughts does not make it easy to focus on much of anything, including showering and eating. In the beginning I thought that it'd go away once Seifer was back. I was so hopeful that everything would go back to normal when Seifer got back. And a lot of things did. The thoughts are almost all gone. There are no questions why he left. The light in the one little piece of my heart he resides in is finally sharp and clear. But no matter how many times I remind myself that he's here and that I'm safe, I can't shake the instinctual need to stay alert. If what I got from Seifer's explanation was the truth then things were about the change, and they were about to change soon. For the better, I remind myself. Emil will be gone and I'll be safe. Everyone I love will be safe. Things will go back to normal. _Is that what you really want?_ The internal voice inquires. I stare at the white tile in front of me. Of course it's what I want. I tell the voice. Why wouldn't it be? It's not like Seifer is going to leave me afterwords. The reason he's here is not just to protect me. The voice doesn't speak against me and I let myself momentarily bask in my triumph. Nothing all that bad has happened, so it should be simple to forget that this even happened. But maybe not all of it. After all, Emil is the reason that Seifer is here with me right now. I feel a new sense of hope run through my veins and I turn the water off.

"Better not leave the asshole alone for too long." I tell myself as I hope out of the tub and dry off as quickly as I can manage. I haphazardly start pulling my clothes on as I make my way for the hall. I hop out of the door, pulling my shorts on and trying to get the shirt to slid over my head at the same time. I feel like I'm doing a pretty good job at it but by the sound of the deep chuckles bouncing off the walls around me I must look like an idiot.

"You in a hurry, lamer?" Seifer asks patronizingly, yet it doesn't bother me.

"Shut up and help me." I laugh as I keep struggling. I can hear his clothes rustle as he pushes himself away from the wall and walks to me.

"Stop moving, chickenwuss." He orders. I obey his command and stand still as he gently pulls the shirt over my head so that I can see what I'm doing. My face is already breaking out into a smile and by the time I have my shirt on correctly, it's almost painful. The small smile gracing his lips as he shakes his head at me are totally worth the pain though.

"You're an idiot." He says, but there's no malice behind his words. My smile doesn't falter and he pushes my head down lightly. "Fix your pants and come eat, chickenwuss. Breakfast is getting cold." I hurry and pull my other leg through the leg hole of my shorts and follow after him.

Things are going to be just fine.

~Authors Note~

I'm just going to warn you guys now that this story is going to get a bit dark in the next couple chapters. I'm probably going to have to put a warning in the description or something. Anyways, there's going to be a lot of Emil and craziness so there's something to look forward too. I'm planning on updating every Thrusday, but if you are just generally interested in how the chapters are going then you can find my tumblr url on my profile. Feel free to drop by.


	11. Chapter 10

~ Authors Note~

Okay guys this was late because some family stuff came up and I didn't have a lot of time to work on it, but it's here now. The_ italicized_ part is a flashback. I'm giving a **trigger warning** for** torture** on the this chapter, chapter 11, and there's going to be character death in chapter 12. It's probably the only warning I'm going to give so.. I hope you guys enjoy~

* * *

Things had finally started to get back to normal. Seifer would come and go, sometimes being gone for two days or three but he'd always call and let me know that he was okay. Things were going really well. Emil stopped going to school, my mom kept pestering me about how happy all her friends were to get the pictures she took. It made it hard to stay alert. Things were great. They were familiar and I had let myself relax. That had been my mistake.

_"How's Seifer supposed to pass this year when he never comes to school?" Roxas asks with a smirk. I hit him on the shoulder lightly as a punishment for taking joy out of Seifer's possible failure._

_ "I have no idea. He'll figure it out. Not like this is the first time he's missed a lot of school." I answer as Roxas and I walk to my house. He has taken it upon himself to make sure I am never alone when Seifer or my mom can't be there. And since Axel conveniently goes missing around the same time that Seifer does, he has the time to do that. I've missed hanging out with him and over the last few weeks I've been mentally hitting myself for not paying attention to my best friend. _

_ "You'd totally know that. How long have you been stalking him again?" He jokes, pushing me slightly. I scowl and push him back._

_ "I've never stalked him. I just notice things." The face he makes tells me that he totally doesn't believe me. "Really!" I insist but his face stays the same regardless. "You're such a dick." I say and I can see his lip start to twitch. "And you're face is stupid." He breaks at that, letting out a full laugh._

_ "Like you have room to talk." He goads. __I just laugh with him. I ignore the bang of a trash can somewhere to my right as we pass another alley. I tune out the angry whispering that follows. I disregard the uneasy feeling that settles in my chest and makes my heart beat with adrenaline. The need to run away from there as fast as I can raises and I refuse to listen to that too. Things are just starting to get better and I don't want to ruin that by becoming paranoid again._

_ Shuffling footsteps come from the next alley. I keep my vision locked straight ahead. Faint laughter from the next. Roxas becomes increasingly more tense beside me and if he's feeling it too then... My resolve to ignore my instincts crumbles. It's too late though. __Three guys walk out of the alley immediately in front of us. Two of them are big guys. By big I mean freaking gigantic. Between the giants is a thin hooded figure. It doesn't take a genius to figure out who it is and I look at Roxas from the corner of my eye. Fear is replaced by regret at the knowledge that Roxas isn't going to get out of this unharmed. _

_ There's more shuffling from behind us. Obviously we're surrounded. God damn how could I have been so stupid. Then everyone stops. Everyone is silent and unmoving. Emil slowly reaches up to uncover his face. His eyes never leave mine as the hood falls to his shoulders._

_ "Hello Roxas." He greets, glancing over at him for a __millisecond__ before locking his eyes back on me again. "Hayner. It's nice to see you guys again. I'm sure you've missed me around campus." __Roxas scoffs._

_ "Not really." He goads and I almost feel like slapping him upside the head. __Emil laughs heartily but the look in his eyes is anything but friendly. _

_ "Oh sweet Roxas, you really have no idea what kind of situation you're in do you?" __He fakes a warmth in his voice but it comes out strained and overly sweet. He's annoyed. Roxas tries to conceal the confusion and worry showing on his face. _

_ "__What do you want?" Roxas snaps back, using anger as a defensive strategy. Emil's face twists into a grin._

_ "Nothing that has to do with you. All I want is standing right there beside you." Roxas turns to look at me, his eyes begging me to explain even though I know I won't have time for that. I avoid his gaze and instead take a step towards Emil._

_ "He has nothing to do with this Emil please just let him go."Usually I wouldn't beg like this but starting a fight right now would only end up with Roxas hurt or killed. Emil doesn't care about Roxas, he's just a pest to him. No better than a rat. There's no way he's getting out of here without some injuries, but maybe they'll at least let him live._

_ "Oh but he does have a small part in this, Puppy." It's my turn to be confused. "He might not know it, but let me just tell you that you're not the only one being protected. I'm actually surprised that pyro boyfriend of his hasn't told him yet."_

_ "What are you saying about Axel?" Roxas steps up to stand beside me, intrigued by Emil's apparently vast knowledge about a secret Axel is keeping. Emil steps up to Roxas and pats his cheek softly._

_ "Oh honey, it's bound to be found out anyways so I might as well be the one to tell you. He's in a gang. A pretty powerful gang. Very vicious. I've seen them fight, they do so enjoy a good fight. I've seen your boyfriend slash throats and lick the blood from his lips with a smirk." __He stops to just let his words sink in. "Even I'm not that bad. I know how to show mercy. That's why I'm not going to kill you, Roxas. You're pretty much innocent in this entire ordeal. Your choice in partner is the only crime."_

_ Roxas just stares at the ground, lost in thought. Emil goes to cup his face but Roxas jerks back. His eyes are huge and his breath comes out in short bursts. His nostrils flare and his face starts turning pink. He looks like he's about to both lung at Emil and break down in tears. Lost and confused and cornered. Everything goes silent again. Emil steps forward and takes Roxas's face in his hands and forces Roxas to look him in the eye._

_ "I'm sure he loves you though. Monsters aren't completely emotionless. They can love, trust me." His voice is soft, calming. I never thought Emil could be calming but in that moment he is and it leaves my head spinning. __Emil side glances at me as he says the next words. "We can love." My heart stops and my breath catches in his throat. He can't be insinuating that he loves me. That's ridiculous.._

_ The fight seems to leave Roxas a moment later and his shoulder's droop. Emil releases his face and that falls towards the ground as well. I take a small step closer to him for support. His blue eyes look up into my brown ones and he gives me a small smile._

_ "I'm sorry Hay'." He reaches for my hand but he only skims it before he drops to the __ground in a heap. I gasp and try to go to him but arms wrap around to restrain me. I struggle a__gainst the person but it's not hard to tell that he is way bigger than me. _

_ "Calm down, Puppy." Emil snarls at me, taking a handful of my hair and pulling so that I have to stop thrashing it around trying to headbutt the man holding me. "He'll be fine." __His face contorts into a psychotic grin and he lets my head go, turning around and walking towards the two guys still standing in the same place._

_ "I'd be more worried about yourself." The man holding me whispers anxiously. I try to face him but he just holds me tighter to his chest._

_ "Knock him out." Emil commands._

* * *

_Something very cold and wet splashes my face and shocks me from the dark abyss my mind had fallen into. __My eyes jerk open and I flinch away from the light._

_ "It's time to wake up, Puppy. I'm tired of waiting." __Emil whines as he stands over me. When my eyes don't immediately open he growls and his fist connects with the side of my face, snapping my head to the right. "I said wake up!" I force my eyes open __to placate him. My head slowly turns back to face him and a pleased smile is already in place on his lips. He steps away from me._

_ "Where the hell am I?" I hiss at him as I try to sit up. My hands and legs are both shackled so __it's a bit difficult to move around but it's manageable. Emil giggles and turns to me again._

_ "Now, it'd be silly to tell you that. Not like you're going to escape or anything but just in case, you know." He says warmly like he's talking about a favorite pet's silly antics. I scowl at him but all it does is make him laugh again and he bops my nose fondly. I swat at his hand in retribution. That is obviously the wrong thing to do because in the blink of an eye the smile is gone from his face and the fond warmth is extinguished from his eyes. _

_ "__I'm not your pet." I spit at him. My mind yells at me to cut it out. I'm pushing all of his buttons and that's going to mean bad things for me but I don't care. I refuse to let him think he's won something. His eyes widen with rage and his fists clench at his sides._

_ "You disobedient little maggot!"He explodes, flying at me faster then I've ever seen him move. His fist is the first thing to contact me, smashing right into my nose with such force that my body goes tipping back and I end up on my back again. "I'll beat it out of you if I have to." As soon as he lands so that he's seated on my chest he brings his other fist down. And then the other._

_ I can feel my lip split open and my jaw dislocate and my nose break. I can hear ever crack and snap and thud. I taste the blood. I smell the blood. It fills my senses and makes my stomach protest. I gasp for breath, but __my body isn't satisfied with what I'm able to take in. Emil seems to notice my breathing issue because he takes a break from pounding my face in order to wrap his hands around my neck and cut off my desperate attempts to breath entirely. My eyes open in a panicked frenzy, not actually being opening fully because of the swelling and my hands reach for him uselessly. The world is just starting to fuzz around the edges when he lets me go and stands up. I gulp in lungfuls of precious oxygen gratefully._

_ "You will learn, Puppy. You're mine now and as much as I enjoy your spirit, I'm going to get real tired of it real soon. But until then you may continue to fight. Enjoy the game while it lasts." Emil's tone is confusing and ultimately unreadable. He steps to one side of my body and kicks me harshly in my side, jolting my almost healed ribs and causing me to wish that I didn't need to breathe. My mostly swollen eyes shut fully and I gasp in little breaths. There's a familiar click of a camera and then footsteps distancing themselves from me. I hear Emil say something but I can't make it out and I can't seem to make myself care what he's saying. I welcome sleep when it's induced moments later._

In all honesty I'm not even sure how long I've been chained here. Emil shows up a lot, maybe once a day maybe more. Has it been a week? It feels longer than that, but then again I spend whatever time I'm not being 'trained' by Emil sleeping. Maybe it's been two weeks? I contemplate asking Emil but then again I don't really care enough to speak so politely with him.

The sound of metal scraping concrete resounds through the room and makes me cringe. That sound always means that Emil is here and that usually means a bad day for me. Last time he was here he told me that I'm to get up when he arrives, but I refuse. He's not my master and I'm not going to be taught to obey his every command.

"I see you're still as stubborn as ever. That's fine, I've planned a special training session for today." His voice is light and he sounds genuinely excited. My heart speeds up in fear but I still refuse to sit up. There's some clanking noises but I refuse to look at him. I'm probably better off not knowing.

"You really are a stupid little pup." He breathes from beside me.

"Doesn't matter, you're not going to win." I gather up the courage to reply. I hear him laugh as he squats next to my head.

"We'll see."

** CLICK.**

~Another Authors Note~

I really am sorry it was late, I was trying to be so good at keeping my schedule but like I said, family stuff so it was kind of unavoidable. I'm really glad people are still reading this, honestly. I started to feel like it was a lost cause because no one has reviewed or said anything about anything, so I hope you guys don't have too many issues with it. I have the next chapter pretty much written already, so I'm going to be revising that but it's going to definitely be uploaded on time. I think that's all I have to say for now, so thanks again for reading~


	12. Chapter 11

"You should see him, he's furious." Emil's rich voice reaches my ears and I can feel an angry flush building. "I wonder if he enjoys the pictures I've been giving him. Oh, how he must love how you look. All bloody and bruised down on your knees like that. That angry look in those big brown eyes. Mmm, I know I do." Emil taunts, fisting a hand in my hair and roughly pulling so that my head tilts back and I'm forced to look at his face. The self-satisfied smirk on his face makes me feel sick and I unconsciously growl. That just makes him smirk wider and he leans down until his lips are only centimeters away from mine. The nauseous feeling intensifies and I'm actually afraid I might vomit.

"I'm going to enjoy watching you lose." I spit the words at him. His eyes slowly trail down my face to my lips and the smirk slips into something else. He licks his own lips and stares at mine hungrily.

"You're just so fiesty. All these venomous words have stained your lips. Maybe that's why they're so enticing.. So much hate filled, angry words.." Emil basically purrs. He makes a quiet moaning sound in the back of his throat and closes the gap so that his lips brush up against mine with his next words. "Baby, I'm not going to lose. I've already won." He whispers just loud enough for me to hear and he gives a small yank to my hair. I growl at him again and try to head butt him, but his grip on my hair is too strong and I only manage to hurt myself more. I hiss in pain and Emil smiles.

"You haven't won anything. This isn't over." I try to say in the most even tone I can manage. He yanks at my hair so hard that my body tips back and he releases his hold so that I fall back onto the floor.

"You're right about it not being over. That stubborn bastard is still out for my head. It'd be more annoying if it wasn't so fun toying with him. But oh well, what can a guy do." He says nonchalantly and walks over to the cart that he keeps all his tools on. "How about we play a game, huh? Would you like that?" He asks sweetly as he picks up a shiny silver scalpel. He examines it and shrugs. My words catch in my throat as I scramble back to my knees. I look from the knife to his face and back.

"Wh-what?" I stammer out, keeping my eyes locked on the knife as Emil strolls across the room and opens a door.

"A game, Puppy. Do you want to play?" He asks again from inside the room he had walked into, his tone becoming increasingly more bored. He pops his head out of the door and stares at me, waiting for an answer. My mind races for an answer that doesn't sound too pitiful, but such an answer never comes.

"N-no." I force out, hoping it doesn't sound too much like a plea. He doesn't seem too convinced and he goes back into the other room for a minute. He comes back empty handed and my heart slows a bit in relief.

"Now now, Puppy. I know you must be bored, I know I am. Trust me it'll be fun and it'll finally get you off your knees." He replies and sticks his head into the hallway. I can't hear what he says to the guards there but when they follow him into the room and right towards me I know it can't be anything good.

"Really, I'm not bored. I don't want to play any games." I insist. He just shakes his head sadly at me.

"That's too bad, you're not going to enjoy this much then." Emil says, sounding very disappointed. He comes to stand right before me while the two guards get behind me. Then he reaches into his pocket and pulls out a small syringe. I'm about to full out beg for him to not do any of this but he moves so fast. I feel a sharp pinch in the side of my neck and my vision blurs slightly, marring my ability to see the excited smile he's sporting. Everything goes black.

It's completely silent when I start waking up. I groan at the pain in my head and the unnatural heaviness of my limbs. I try to lift my hand but it hits metal and I realize that I'm completely secured down onto a table. The fear from before hits me like a million bricks and my eyes shoot open. The bright lights sting my eyes and make my head pound and I quickly close my eyes again.

"Oh yay, you're awake!" Emil exclaims, clapping his hands together. I open my eyes slowly this time, blinking quickly to try and adjust to the lighting. "I was getting so impatient, I was even considering starting without you." He tells with a short laugh. "But that'd be silly, I wouldn't want you to miss any of this. It'd take all the fun out of it.. Well, most of the fun." I try to tell him to please stop talking, but my mouth is completely dry and the air I breathe in makes my throat feel like it's being shredded.

"You want me to start the camera?" An unfamiliar voice asks a bit shyly and Emil laughs.

"If you would be so kind." He replies and then he's right there in my line of sight, looking down at me. "You ready for the fun?" He questions but doesn't wait for an answer. His gaze shifts from my face down to my throat and he trails a finger down it slowly, ending at the dip between my collar bones. "You really are a beauty.." Emil mutters softly. I slowly let out the breath I had been holding and that's when he closes his hand around my neck and squeezes just enough that I make a little wheezing noise as I breath in. He releases his hold quickly and I feel a little grateful.

"I'm not going to break." I choke out lamely. "There's nothing you can do to break me. I'm not that weak." Emil's eyes lock with mine and I see a small bit of surprise there. But it's quickly covered by more excitement.

"Good, that's what I was hoping to hear." He shoots back and picks the scalpel off the cart, holding it up and staring down at my chest. "Now, where should we start?"

The pain hits and I clamp my mouth shut as to not scream. Emil tuts disapprovingly and continues on with his design.

"Don't hold back, I want to hear all those delicious screams of yours Puppy." I curl my fingers around the restraints and breath out harshly through my nose. Emil presses the knife a little harder against my skin as punishment and I fight the whimper trying to escape. If he wants to torture me, fine. But I'm not going to let him get the pleasure of hearing me in pain. He rakes the scalpel down my chest in anger and growls at the back of his throat.

"Don't you know better than to not piss off your master?" Emil growls again, removing the knife from my skin. My chest already feels warm and sticky from the blood and it takes me a minute to unclamp my jaws.

"I thought you liked my stubbornness." I reply sarcastically. He nearly purrs at my response and he brushes the dull side of the scalpel down my bottom lip, smearing my own blood onto it. I unconsciously swipe my tongue across my lips and instantly regret it when the metallic tang fills my mouth.

"Oh, I do." He reassures. He bends over and ghosts his lips across the shell of my ear. "But I also like it when you crack just the slightest bit." He whispers.

"Well, you're out of luck there." I say as I lock my jaw closed once more. Emil just humphs childishly and sets the scalpel down on the cart. He reaches for a small metal lighter and flicks it open.

"We better cauterize these wound before you lose too much blood." He taunts and holds the flame to my flesh. This time I can't stop the screams from ripping through my body. "That's my good boy." Emil praises and moves the flame across the cuts. "This should leave some nice scars." He says between my echoing cries. This continues until he's burnt all the cuts closed and then he snaps the lighter closed and tosses it onto the cart. He runs a hand through my hair comfortingly and kisses my temple.

"You did very well today, Puppy." Emil tells me softly, kissing my forehead this time. I stare at the cracked concrete ceiling and try my best not to pass out. "I'm proud of you." He says, following up the praise with another kiss. I swallow the lump in my throat and let out a deep breath.

"You disgust me." I try to sound threatening but it just comes out sounding tired and small. Emil chuckles against my cheek and he stands up straight, maneuvering my head so that I'm looking at him again.

"That'll change." He says assuredly. "Soon enough you'll beg for this." He continues. The confidence in his orange eyes overwhelms me a bit. I close my eyes to escape the sigh.

"No, I won't." I argue back feebly. He just rubs his thumbs across my cheeks, taking away the tears. I move my face away from him and he lets me. He sighs dejectedly and runs his hand once more through my hair.

"I'm going to miss that stubborn attitude of yours. But for now it's still here to play with, so I'm grateful for that. I'll get one of the guards to come give you a bath and then you have the rest of the night to yourself." Emils walks to the door and pauses. "Oh, and thanks for playing with me today, I had a lot of fun." He says and then he's gone, the door banging behind him.

I sigh in relief and let my body relax. I stare at the ceiling again and say a silent prayer to any deity out there to please let this end soon. There's a rustling sound from the corner of the room and I instantly tense up. My head is still clamped down so I can't really get a look at what's making the noise. There's a click and a few more rustling sounds before the person speaks.

"I'm so sorry.." The voice from before says quietly. My response sticks in my throat when the emotion behind his words settles in my chest. "God, I am so sorry.." He says again and it almost sounds like he's about to cry. The guy sounds young. Even younger than me, and I wonder for a minute what he did to end up getting trapped by Emil.

"I'll be okay." I assure him, only half believing my own words. He sniffles and I feel a new pulse of strength run through me. "We'll be alright, kid." I add and I feel a light touch graze the top of my hand. The boy is quiet and I flip my hand over to grab onto his. If nothing else I can stay strong for this kid. I can keep going until I can get him out before it's too late for him too.

"We'll get through this." I tell him and squeeze his hand. "Do you believe me?" He takes a couple seconds to respond, but his answer cements my reason to hope.

"Yes." I let out a sigh.

"Alright, good. Now, you're going to have to help me get a couple things. Do you think you can do that?"

"I'll do what I can.." He answers hesitantly. I squeeze his hand again.

"That's all I'm asking." I assure him. He steps so that I can see him face. The sheer amount of hope and faith shining through his eyes almost blinds me and I can't help but feel my spirits lift just that much higher. "I'm getting us out."

~Authors Note~

Alright, so I'm just going to thank everyone for sticking with me. Your reviews were very inspiring and that's really the only reason I didn't just delete the entire thing. So thank you guys :3. There's only a couple chapters left! I think I've decided on having 14 chapters, but in light of school starting in a little less than 2 weeks in my area, I'm going to post chapter 12 next Thursday and then I'm planning to post chapters 13 and 14 on Mondays so I have the weekend to work on them and won't slack on my schoolwork. So there might not be a chapter the Thursday after next week. If there isn't one then it'll be posted on the Monday immediately following.


	13. Chapter 12

Emil was getting lazy. Lazy and frustrated. It must have been 3 weeks now, maybe even a month. Even slicing me up wasn't producing the results he wanted and that's enough to frustrate even the most patient of men. Day by day I would be moved less from the table. After he was done for the day the guards would come and splash me with some water before leaving. The young boy didn't always come to record the sessions but on the days that he did we would talk afterwords. I was slowly formulating a plan of my own, since it didn't seem likely that anyone else would be coming to save me soon.

It was a special treat when Emil would have me moved back into the other room and shackled to the floor. At least here I could move my limbs around. My mind screams at me about how wrong it is that I find happiness from being shackled and beaten, but I command it to shut up. There is nothing pleasant about the experience but the slight freedom I get from being able to touch my own face is enough reason for me to be happy about something. Any place I can find happiness I will find happiness. Giving into the darkness isn't going to help me escape.

Today apparently is one of the special ones. Emil slams the door open, the metal screeches against the concrete and I flinch away from the sound. There's two sets of footsteps which means that the boy came today. Emil is uncharacteristically silent today, walking right up to his tools and skimming his fingers over each other in thought. I consider being quiet and waiting for him to say something but that thought is discarded quickly. I clear my throat loudly and I can see Emil tensing up.

"What, no snarky comments today? I don't even get a hello?" The voice in my head tells me to shut up. It chastises me for taunting the guy torturing me, but I ignore it. I ignore it like I've ignored everything else it's said. Yeah, it probably would save me a lot of pain but that's not what matters now. He can carve my body up, riddle it with bruises and burns, none of that matters. He doesn't care about my body, he wants to rule my mind. If I want to get my life back after all this is over then I'm going to need my god damn stubborn ass personality and that's the one thing I refuse to let him damage.

"Come on Emil, cat got your tongue?" I push, mocking him with a small laugh afterwords. I can hear his breathing increase. The muscles in his jaw clench and unclench in anger. I feel a smirk sneak it's way onto my face. "Are you giving up so soon?" My internal voice screams at me. _Please, just shut up! SHUT UP!_ This time I give into it's pleas. I might be stupid but I'm not that stupid. I've said enough. I peek over to observe his reaction. Fists clenches, nostrils flared, intense breathing. Emil is livid and as much as it pleases me that I can have that effect on him by saying and doing so little, it also frightens me. The thoughts have crossed my mind more than once.

One fist crashes down onto the metal platter of tools and I flinch away. Across the room I can hear small shuffling footsteps move further away. My mind races with possibilities. Worst case scenario front and center. Is today the day he gets tired of this game? What does that mean for me if the answer is yes? _You're such an idiot, do you really have to ask that question?_ No, but I don't want to think about the answer. It's forced on me anyhow. _Is today the day he kills you?_

"You really need to learn better manners." Emil laughs. Fully, throaty chuckles fill the room and soon he's doubled over laughing. It does nothing to chase my thoughts away. I'm right to stay weary because the next second he's right there in my face, rage swirling in his eyes. "What's it going to take to break you? Huh? TELL ME!" He's inches from my head and my ears ring from his shouting. I school my face quickly so he can't see how fucking terrified I am.

"I'm not going to break." I hiss, glaring coldly right into his eyes. "Nothing you do is going to break me. You're not going to win this game." I say as calmly as I can, forcing that self satisfied smirk of mine onto my lips. His eyes get impossibly bigger and if I wasn't fearing for my life I would probably laugh at the size of his nostrils. The guttural scream that escapes his throat makes my heart stop. At this point Emil sounds more animal than human and I feel the slightest bit of empathy. His face is ripped from my view as he rears up into a standing position and stomps his way into the other room. His voice is loud and clear as he yells at the guards to get me off that table and chain me in the other room. Only one thought is clear in my mind. One thought repeated over and over until I'm not even sure I'm capable of other thoughts. _Is today the day he kills you?_

* * *

Before today I'm not sure I knew the true definition of terror. Yeah, I had been scared shitless this entire time, but it was never like this. Emil had never been like this. The moment the chains clicked around my ankles and wrists he was right there, but the anger I was expecting was gone. The cocky smirk was missing. I had never seen this look on anyone before and in this moment I wished I never had. His eyes were flat.. so flat and devoid of all emotion, yet it was like being sucked into a black whole. There was nothing. _Nothing holding him back.._

There was nothing as he ordered a guard to hold my head in place. Nothing as his fists smashed into my face over and over again. Over and over until the impact was more recognizable than my own heartbeat. Nothing as he ripped my head out of the other man' hold by my hair and slammed my head into the concrete beneath me. Nothing as he rebroke every rib. Nothing as he broke my left arm and the bones of my hand. Stomping on them until I wasn't even sure they were still there.

Then it was done. The room was silent except for the wet, ragged sobs forcing their way out of my throat. Then a weight slammed against my chest and his face was right there and it was empty. I wanted to close my eyes or look away but.. it was like they were locked in place. They wouldn't do what I told them. I tried to control the pained whimpers from making their way out into the open, but nothing my body wouldn't follow my commands. I was inside a broken vessel in the middle of a lock down and the system wasn't accepting the override commands. So I watched as a dead smile appeared on his face. I felt his cold hands run over my broken jaw with a feather like touch.

"You all are such fragile creatures. Bodies easily controlled and broken." His voice was soft. Soft. Dead. Nothing. There was nothing. The hand caressed it's way down to the middle of my through, swirling around my adam's apple and then there was something. A spark in his black eyes. The pupils contracted just the slightest, the corner of his lips twitched, the formerly smooth glide of his fingertips skipped.

"Emil." My voice is gargled and broken and it twists the syllables into something so sad that I almost feel myself tearing up because of it. I can feel as my skin drags along his still fingers and I swallow nervously. "Emil." I say again, a bit stronger than the last time. His eyes focus just the slightest but that's all that's needed for him to snap out of it. He blinks and his eyes widen. His face wrinkles in confusion. So much confusion... and something else. He studies me and then it seems to dawn on him and he scrambles off of me, tripping over my legs and his own as he frantically tries to get away. He's scared. Maybe as scared as I was. His mouth falls open in mortification and he quickly covers it to keep any sounds from escaping.

A laugh forces it's way out of my lungs at his reaction. It's not like he hasn't done worse, but that's not what he's afraid of. Emil lost himself. His programming was overwritten and he had no control. Didn't even know what he was doing. I close my eyes and try to fight off the urge to sleep. I need to stay awake and finalize the last bit of my plan. Numbness settles into my limbs and all too quickly and I realize that I'm fighting a losing battle against blissful nothingness. I suppose the plan will just have to wait until I wake up.

"Oh thank god you're awake." I groan at the voice and it chuckles. "I know, I know. We don't have much time though. Emil's having a breakdown or something and the guards have left. I'm not sure how long it'll be before they come back." There are hands on my back and they help me sit up. I let my head fall so that my chin rests on my chest and I take a couple breaths before opening my eyes. The boy smiles softly at me and hold up a cup.

"I was told to look after you, so I brought some food and water. Just in case, you were feeling up to eating a bit." He says shyly, placing the cup near my own hand and pushing a place closer so I could see it.

"Just the water for now, thanks." I reply, trying to meet his eye to express how thankful I really am but he just blushes and picks the water back up. He brings the cup to my lips and tilts it so that a small trickle of water passes my lips and I swallow it down gratefully. After a few seconds he sets the cup back down.

"So, what's the plan?" He asks, folding his hands in his lap. I think over it for a minute and then lock eyes with him.

"I need the key to the cuffs. I can't do much if I'm chained to the floor." He nods in understanding. "Do you know who keeps the keys?"

"The guard that's stationed at your door. Of course, Emil has a copy, but I'm not sure where he keeps it.." I think over this information, trying to formulate how I could get my hands on the guards key. Like I said before, there's not much I can do while being chained down. I regret having to ask this of him, but it seems like the only way..

"I really wish I didn't have to ask this of you..." I start to say. The kid leans in closer and smiles at me weakly. "Do you think you could get your hands on the key?" He looks down at him hands thoughtfully for a few minutes. Finally he bites his lip and looks back at me.

"Yeah, I think I know a couple ways I could get it." He says softly, almost dejectedly. The look in his eyes scares me. I'm about to ask him what ways he's talking about but he holds up his hand to silence me. "Don't worry about me. I'll do whatever I have to if it means that we can both get out of here alive." Determination shines clearly through his words and it reminds me of my own. And if there's one thing I know about myself then it's that if I'm determined to do something, I am the most stubborn son of a bitch you will ever meet. As much as I'd like to talk him out of it, I need to get out of these chains if I want to get the both of us out. So I let it slid and hope that he'll be alright with whatever happens.

I drink the rest of the water and he feeds me some of the food that he brought me. I swallow it slowly while I plan out the rest of our escape. The small fact that I have never seen the outside of this room or the room with the table doesn't really help me much, and I remind myself to go over these details with the boy. My eyes stray to the table a couple feet away from me where I know there are weapons. Knives and knuckle dusters lay there. Emil picks them up from time to time and appraises them. It's likely an intimidation tactic. He's never used them though. But they'll come in handy for me.

One thing bothers me though. Something, possibly avoidable, yet more than likely going to happen. Killing someone. Or more than one person. While I have gotten into quite a few fights (most with Seifer) I have never hurt someone bad enough that they required hospitalization. I never thought that I would need to kill someone. Taking a life... It has never been something I have viewed as heroic. Not as self-defense. Not a solider killing the enemy at war. None of it in heroic. It's sometimes necessary and I don't look down on someone for killing in those situations, but it's no less sad. And I might have to do it.

"Have you heard anything about Seifer?" I question the boy in an attempt to distract myself from those thoughts. At some point I'll have to accept the fact, but it doesn't have to be right now. He jumps at the suddenness of the question and I almost apologize, but his eyes light up some and so I discard the idea.

"Not really, but Emil's been a lot angrier lately. He's tense all the time and he has a lot of the gang on high alert. The only ones who aren't really is me and the few other people he has around you. That's got to mean that they're getting close, right?" His voice expresses his excitement even though I can tell he's trying to control it. I feel excitement and relief bubble in my chest at the news.

"It seems really likely, yeah. How long has that been going on? I mean I've notices Emil's been getting worse for the last couple days.."

"Maybe four or five days." He informs me. They must be really close by now then. But not close enough. Emil's obviously at his limit and he could barge in here any minute and just end me. The escape is still going to happen, but maybe getting out won't be as hard as I thought. If Seifer and whatever gangs are with him are fighting their way in then it won't be as hard to fight my way out. I open my mouth to ask about outside the room when the door screeches open and an unfamiliar guard walks in. His eyes lock on the boy and he speaks quickly.

"Emil wants to see you." He growls out. "Now." The boy tenses at the urgency but nods quickly and sends me an apologetic look. The guard turns and walks back towards the door.

"I'll do what I can." The boy whispers quickly and then they're both gone from the room and the door is banging shut behind them. I stare at the metal door for a long while, mind completely blank. After a while I look away and study the rest on the room. I've spent a lot of time in here and it's not really any different this time around, but any little detail could help my escape so I check out ever crack and corner in the room. I sigh in boredom when I've finished scanning the room for the fourth time. The room is completely quiet and from what I can't hear the hallway is also quiet. I settle in for another day solitude.

The sound of the door scraping the floor as it opens wakes me. I don't sit up right away to see who it is, frankly I care very little unless it's the boy. My eyes stare blankly at the ceiling as footsteps sound their way towards me. They're light and hesitant, unmistakably the boy's. I roll onto my right side a bit so that I can push myself up with my good arm. The boy rushes to help me as soon as he sees that I'm awake. Once I'm sitting comfortably I look at his face and I'm shocked by his split lip and the black eye.

"What happ-" I start to ask but he chooses that moment to shove something in my face. I take it and move it a respectable distance from my face so I can identify it. The key. My attention is back on him in no time and he explains.

"I stole the key and made a copy. That way the guard wouldn't notice that it was missing the next time Emil told him to move you or something. It's why I took so long to get back.."

"That's fine. Thank you." I reach out and ruffle his hair just the slightest but it makes a huge, proud smile appear on his face. The temptation to question him about how he stole it grows, but a part of me doesn't really want to know. And from the look on his face when I started to ask him what happened made it clear that he doesn't want to talk about it anyways.

A scuffling sound draws our attention to the door. There's muffled voices, but they're way too soft to make out any words. Then another set of footsteps approach, their quick pace echoing through the hall and in turn echoing through the room. I direct a questioning glance towards the boy. He shrugs but his eyes are filled with fear.

"What?" I whisper to him, trying to both sound commanding but not at the same time. He seems to shrink into himself as he looks from me to the door and back.

"Those were Emil's footsteps.. I wasn't told to be in here.." He whispers back and I understand perfectly.

"Hurry, go hide in the other room." I tell him and he just stares at me blankly. "Go. Now." This time I don't hold back on the authoritative tone and he scrambles off the floor and towards the other door. It clicks shut just in time for the other door the swing open to reveal Emil. He looks worn out as he turns to the guards and tells them to go help the others. Which means that it's only him and me now. I turn the key around in my hand so that it slips into the lock to the cuff around my right wrist and then I wait. Emil turns back and walks into the room when the guards take off running down the hall.

"Hayner." Emil says in a way of greeting. Even his voice sounds exhausted and I have to remind myself not to feel bad for him. He's the enemy.

"Emil." I greet back, sounding bored. His lip twitches in a failed smile and he walks over to the table with the weapons on it. "You look like shit." I say as I turn the key and the lock clicks open. My voice masks the sound and Emil's only response is a quiet huff of laughter.

"You're really not one to talk." He retorts and it's my turn to laugh. A bang reverberates into the room and my attention is instantly drawn to it. In the distance there's voices and Emil glares toward the open door. He leaves his place by the table to go over and close it softly.

"What's going on out there?" I use the fact that he's turned away from me to my advantage and quickly unlock the cuff on my left wrist. There's some more banging but it's barely audible through the door.

"Well, frankly that's none of your business." Emil answers, turning back to face me and making his way over to the table again. "It'll be too late when they get here." He holds up a long, thin dagger and looks at me from the corner of his eyes. My body freezes up with what he's implying.

"Seifer's here." I state and Emil heaves an exaggerated shrug.

"Doesn't really matter." He's the one that sounds bored now. "He's not going to get what he wants, so it doesn't really matter." Emil walks so he's standing right in front of me, knife in hand. He's smiling sadly. "It really is a shame we didn't have more time."

Before he even lifts the knife I bolt up, digging my right shoulder into his stomach and knocking him back onto the floor. The knife slips from his hand and slides a couple feet away. I quickly bring my right fist down in a calculated hit. His nose crunches under my knuckles and my hand stings like a bitch, but it buys me the time I need to roll off of him and get my hands on the blade. My hand closes around it and I turn so that I'm facing him. He slowly stands before bringing his hand from his nose and looking at the blood. A sadistic smirk paints itself on his face and he laughs.

"Should have let you out to play sooner." He says and starts to move towards me. I stand my ground until he's almost in arms reach. His eyes shoot to my left arm for half a second and I mentally curse him for breaking it. The useless thing hangs limply at my side and is a huge disadvantage but luckily I'm not as stupid as I seem. I dart away from him, placing another couple feet between us. I know that move won't work again, but luckily it won't have to. He turns and advances quicker. I smile at him, making it as cocky as possible. Another couple bangs sound from somewhere in the building, but closer this time and I ignore them. They're my back up so I'm not worried. Emil is though because he tenses up and his attention diverts away from me for just the slightest moment and I leap.

The tackle results in us rolling right up to where the shackles are bolted to the floor and I waste no time reaching over and closing one of the cuffs around Emil's wrist. It locks with no trouble and I can see the anger in his eyes. He knows he's losing, yet he stop fighting. Something shines behind the anger as I bring the knife so that the tip is sitting right above where his heart should be. Then the realization hits me.

"This is all you've really wanted, wasn't it?" I ask, words falling out of my mouth in quiet tufts. Emil's previously hard eyes melt. They melt and I can see him for the first time. The pain and fear and loneliness. He's not hiding anything from me and my body tingles with the knowledge of what I was about to do. "This is all you've wanted for such a long time.. An end.. But you always were too weak to just do it yourself." Shame fills his eyes. Shame and regret. My resolve crumbles and I can feel my hold on the knife loosen. "You've always been too weak and now you're trying to push this on me. But guess what.. I'm not playing your game anymore, Emil. I never was." The door crashes open, filling the room with the terrible metallic screeching. My focus shifts for half a second. Just enough time to hear Seifer yell my name. Just half a second too much to feel Emil's body shift under mine, his free hand closing over mine and pressing down. The blade sinks through skin and muscle. My eyes fall to where the blade planted in his chest. Then they flick to his orange eyes. It might seem cliché but they dim. The life behind them flickers and he grins weakly at me.

"I win." He barely whispers, but I hear him all the same. Time seems to have slowed because it seems like a lifetime before his face relaxes and his hand falls from mine. It feels like weeks before I can move my eyes to his chest. All I can see is the red of his blood. So much red and it coats my hands like dye. Then I'm pulled back into the now. I'm ripped away from his body but it doesn't really matter. I killed him. His blood is on my hands.

"Hayner.." The voice is soft and I want to curl up in it and forget all of this. "Hayner." The person behind the voice presses against the back of my neck.

"Sei.." My own voice shakes too much and gives out. Instead my breath comes out in a rush and the world tilts. I can feel his arms holding me up and as my eyes lose focus and fall shut I can hear him tell me that everything will be alright. That message strikes something in my head and suddenly all I can feel is the warmth radiating off of Seifer's body in waves, lulling me to sleep. And for the first time in god knows how long I let my consciousness go, knowing that I'll be okay when I wake up again.

~Authors Note~

WOOOOOW. Okay, I know I apologize a lot for being late and stuff because I really do feel bad. I like to keep to my promises. So sorry for that I got sick for a couple days. Like really sick and then I had to sort through stuff for school and that pushed the schedule out of the window and seriously this chapter was way longer than I expected it to be so there's that. On the bright side the chapter is super long~ Hahaha... Yeah. Two more chapters and it's all over and done with.


	14. Updates delayed

Guys, once again, I am so sorry for the delay. Chapter 13 is giving me trouble and I don't have very much time to work on it because of all the time I've been putting into my schoolwork. I might be able to work on it this Sunday for a little bit, but it's not going to be finished for another couple weeks as far as I can calculate. I finish the class I'm currently in next Friday, so I should be able to spend a fair amount of time finishing it then.

Chapter 14 is already partially finished but after I complete my current class, I have to open 2 more so my workload will increase. However, I don't think it will take me a month to write it. More than likely it'll be finished by the end of the month.

Thank you for your continued patience.


	15. Chapter 13

Seifer was missing from school today, which wasn't really surprising considering what day it was and how he missed this day every year. I sigh and look at the clock for the billionth time this hour. That's basically how I've spent my day. In layman's terms, bored. That selfish prick could have at least came and entertained me. Instead he's off god knows where doing whatever it is he usually does on Valentine's day.

I rest my chin in my palm, staring blankly at the clock. My mind starts to wonder. Is the ass-hat even going to come see me? Not to be a girl or anything about having a romantic day or anything because I couldn't care less about that, but I'm going let myself feel a little sentimental. A year ago today my whole life changed. I went through so much... I survived through so much shit, and frankly I think I deserve at least one Valentine's day. I sigh again and place my free hand over my heart. The cuts and burns and bruises have all gone away but I can still feel the phantom twinge of pain when I see or think about the scars that have taken up residence there.

My eyes slid shut and I feel immensely tired. It's not uncommon for me these days, especially when reminded of Emil. My breath still hitches at the thought of him. I can still see the life leave his crazed eyes below me. Sometimes I still look at my hands and think I see some blood on them. The voice in my head tells me that it's always going to be that way and I don't doubt it for a second. No matter what he had done, I think mostly he was just lost. Silently screaming for someone to help him. I clear my head of those thoughts. It has been a long time since I really sat down and thought about what happened between me and Emil, and I sorted it out. Going back and rethinking it isn't something I plan on doing. Instead my thoughts go back to Seifer and I feel my heart stutter at the fact that it's already been a year since it all started. For someone who's never been in any kind of romantic relationship, I think I'm doing pretty well.

"So you and your dumb-ass boyfriend doing anything today?" Roxas asks from behind me, bringing me back to the real world. I smile at his demeaning comment about Seifer. Some things never change, and for that I'm glad.

"I have no idea, as you know, he didn't show up today." I whisper back, trying to sound as unfazed as possibly even though it did annoy me a bit. Roxas grumbles behind me.

"Oh god do I. You've been moping all day man. It's depressing." I try my best not to laugh too loudly and draw attention to myself. The clock says only 10 minutes left and I'd hate to get into trouble. Instead I cover my chuckle with a cough and stretch backwards enough to discreetly hit Roxas upside the head. He grunts and immediately hits me back.

"I would as if you and Axel were doing anything but I don't think I want to know." I joke I can feel the heat from his blush. It's a bit harder to hide my laughter this time and it earns me a hard glare from the still rambling teacher. I try to smile as apologetically as I can even though I'm not sorry and haven't been paying attention to what she's been talking about the entire hour anyways. Once she looks away Roxas bops me on the head again.

"Dude.." I whisper to him harshly and rub my head. "Uncalled for."

"Boo fucking hoo you big baby." He answers back and I can hear his smug smile. I don't even try to stop my own smile from emerging. A little less than a year ago, Roxas and I had all but stopped interacting like this. Especially after I got out of the hospital. He blamed himself quite a lot for what happened, and even though I didn't, it was still hard to really talk to each other. I had a lot of trouble talking to anyone. Time went on and we both healed and slowly we were able to really embrace our friendship. I missed it.

The bell rings and I jump in my seat in surprise. Eyes flicking to the clock just to make sure that I wasn't imagining anything. The clock and the quickly fleeing students disproved that theory and I gathered my things quickly. Roxas met me by the door and we walked through the halls and out of the school together, talking idly about our plans for the upcoming weekend. It wasn't until we split and went our separate ways at the gate that my heart started pounding and I stopped walking in order to lean against the fence.

Life had gotten back to normal. Well, maybe better than normal. There was still dark feelings and thoughts that would stay with me forever, darker than anything I had to go through before, but a lot of good things had also come into my life. My relationship with my friends had gotten stronger. My mother and I had a stronger bond than ever. And then there was Seifer. He was a huge part of my life now. More so then I ever thought would have been possible a year ago. But even better than all of that, I was a better person. Stronger and more able to deal with life. I had not just survived, but I grew from the entire ordeal.

My heart was still pounding nervously but I pushed off from the fence and continued towards the Sandlot anyways. Going through the Sandlot is more of a habit now than as a way to stalk Seifer. That's mostly due to the fact he's usually with me so I have no need to stalk him.. not that I ever really truly stalked him. I'm not that crazy...

Let me try this again. Going through the Sandlot is more of a habit to me now and less of an excuse to run into Seifer. And no matter how many months I've spent with him, the idea of seeing him still makes me really nervous. So my heart pounds away in my chest with every step closer I get. A small part of me hopes he won't be there so that I won't turn into a big ball of Hayner mush and just stand there and creepily look at him like I have a habit of doing when I run into him by accident. But the larger part of me just really wants to be with him as soon as possible and if I start to walk faster, it goes (mostly) unnoticed by me.

I stop right before I'm about to round the corner and my palms start to get sweaty. I take a deep breath and step out into the Sandlot, only to find it empty. I slowly scan the entire place with my eyes before letting myself feel so completely stupid for getting so worked up. I shouldn't be all that surprised, a few weeks ago when Seifer and I were talking about Valentine's Day, I did say that I didn't really care about it. It wasn't really a lie.. but it sort of was to some extent. I spent my entire life spending this day alone. Or worse, with my mother. I sigh and run my hand through my hair before making my way over to the bench. The wood is cold put that doesn't stop me from running my fingertips across it lightly.

A minute later I reach into my pocket and pull out a box before gently setting it beside me. Just because Seifer isn't here doesn't mean that I can't reminisce, right? I take one last look at the box before leaning back and letting my eyes slid shut. Even though so much time has gone by and so many things have happened, last February 14th is still very clear in my mind. It's actually one of my happiest memories. It's a memory that I've replayed over to myself dozens of times and somehow it still hasn't lost it's ability to make me happy.

"Chickenwuss?" Seifer's voice questions. The suddenness of it rips me back into reality and my eyes fly open and meet with his.

"Seifer!" I say, a bit too happily, and I feel a blush rising. His lips curl into a small grin.

"Yeah, that would be me. Mind if I sit down?" Afraid that I'd make myself sound even less like a guy if I speak again, I decide to nod instead. Seifer slides next to my on the bench, right where he sat last year. I watch as his eyes flick down to the box in between us and then how he grazes the top of it with his fingers.

"What's this?" He asks after a dozen silent minutes.

"Oh.. Ugh.. It's just.." I'm full on blushing now and I glare inwardly at myself. _Come on Hayner, just spit it out. Stop being a lamer. _The voice inside my head taunts and I notice that it seems to have taken on a Seifer like tone. "It's your present." I blurt out and Seifer laughs quietly at how smooth I am. Yeah.. I'm very smooth..

"I thought we said no presents." Seifer comments as he picks the box up and sets it on his lap.

"Well, yeah, I know. But, I don't know, I just wanted to.." I answer back shyly, looking away from him. He sighs and I once again feel kind of stupid. It's not like I've ever done this thing before.

His clothes rustle as he moves around and but I keep my eyes on my lap. Then suddenly there's a box there. I just stare at it, mind completely blank, and then it clicks. The writing on the front is addressed to me and I slowly look up to find a light blush dusting Seifer's cheeks as well.

"I guess we're more alike then we though." He chuckles self conciously and I don't realize that I'm smiling until a warm smile slips onto his face as well. "You know, I've always really liked your stupid lopsided grin. You look so stupid.. but it's a real smile, you know?" He says and I'm kind of surprised at how straight forward he's being. But I think I understand what he's saying, because the way he's smiling at me right now is kind of really stupid but it's genuine and it's really fucking amazing that he's directing it at me.

"Yeah, I understand perfectly." I barely whisper back before he slides over so that our thighs our touching and cups my face in his large hands. Both of our faces are cold but that goes ignored as our lips brush together. My heart is absolutely pounding and I honestly don't think I've ever smiled as big as I do when he pulls away and rests his forehead against mine.

"Happy Valentines Day, Chickenwuss.." He whispers.

"Right back at'cha, Ass-hat."

It's amazing how something as simple as a chocolate bar can have such an effect on one's life.

~Authors Note~

Okay, so this is the last official chapter. I had planned for a chapter before this one, but after spending weeks literally stressing and crying and just plain struggling to write it, I finally just gave up and decided to scrap it. However, maybe one day I'll be able to finish the damn thing. And if that happens then this fic might get an extension. I've also been entertaining a couple scenes that I'd like to write for this story. Little excerpts and such. Not really sure if that'll happen but it's a legit possibility. Until then, I'd just like to thank everyone for reading, no matter if you're a new or an old reader, without you I would have never ever finished. When I started writing this I was just a kid and while I'm still pretty young, I've grown quite a lot and I like to think that the characters and the story grew along with me. I am really truly grateful for to all of you.

I've always hated endings.. and goodbyes... so I'm not going to think of this as either of those. The story goes on, even if no one is writing it down. I hope you've all enjoyed the ride as much as I have. I'll see you guys around.


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